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941.41019 
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1369780 


A 


GENEAL.OGY  COLLECTION 


3  1833  00730  2224 


Kilbarchan  :  a  Parish  History 


KILBAKCHAN   OLD   PAJi/SH   CHCHCII 

Villi-  iioi/e.'.  132-S,  :i74-S- 


KILBARCHAN 


A  PARISH   HISTORY 


Rev.   Robert   D.   Mackenzie,  b.d. 


Minister  of  the  Parish 


PAISLEY:     ALEXANDER    GARDNER 
Ipub[l6bcc  to  Ibcr  late  /iRajestg  Queen  Ulctocia 


1369780 


VIRO 

QUEM    INDIGEXAM    CIYEM    HEEITOREM    INCOLAE    HUJUS    PAROCHIAE 

HONESTA    CUM    SUPERBIA    SUUM    VINDICANT 

Quo    IN    RETINENDIS    OMNIBUS    OFFICIIS    RERUM     DIVINARUM     DILI- 

GENTIOREM     PIETATE    ET     LIBERALITATE     PRAESTANTIOREM 

NEMINEM   FILIUM   FOVERE   POTEST    ECCLESIA    ScOTTICA 

CUJUS   SINE   CONSILIO   ATQUE   IMPULSU   NUNQUAM   FUISSET   SUS- 

CEPTUM   SINE   AUXILIO   PRAESENTI    NUNQUAM   CONFECTUM 

ROBERTO    CARRUTH 
Armigero  Callochantensi 

HOG   OPUS    DEDICATUR 


PREFACE 


Though  the  present  work  is  largely  historical,  it  is  not  without  mis- 
givings that  I  have  ventured  to  describe  it  as  a  History.  It  is 
questionable,  indeed,  whether  any  Parish  can  of  itself  furnish  materials 
capable  of  being  made  into  what  can  properly  be  called  a  History,  though 
there  are  doubtless  Parishes,  the  records  of  which  supply  valuable 
historical  material ;  for,  according  to  Mr.  Palgrave,  the  results  of  genea- 
logical inquiry  and  local  topographical  investigation  are  amongst  the  best 
materials  the  historian  can  use,  and  the  fortunes  and  changes  of  one 
family,  or  the  events  of  an  upland  township,  may  shed  light  on  the 
darkest  and  most  dubious  portions  of  the  annals  of  a  realm. 

For  writing  History  it  appears  to  be  a  necessary  condition  that  the 
subject  be  integral,  with  boundaries  well  defined,  subjectively  or  ob- 
jectively. From  this  essential  integral  quality  it  follows, — -first,  that  the 
subject  moves  as  a  whole  relatively  to  what  is  outside  of  it,  and  is  afiected 
as  a  whole  by  external  influences ;  and  aecondly,  that  each  period  of  its 
story  follows  from,  and  is  largely  explained  by,  its  predecessor. 

The  fundamental  condition  is  not  fulfilled  in  the  case  of  a  Parish,  the 
boundaries  of  which  are  conventional  and  arbitrary ;  consequently  the 
effect  upon  it  of  outside  influences  is  partial  and  irregular,  and  each 
period  in  its  story  must  appeal  for  an  explanation  to  forces  which  have 
arisen  and  events  which  have  occurred  entirely  outside  of  its  boundaries. 

It  may,  however,  be  claimed  for  each  parish,  that  it  has  contributed 
its  share,  indistinguishable  it  may  be,  to  the  history  of  the  country  of 
which  it  is  a  part,  and  that  it  has  seldom  failed  to  make  some  response, 
in  the  lives  of  its  men  and  women,  to  movements  and  crises  which  are  in 
the  truest  sense  historical. 

Perhaps  the  chief  recommendation  of  a  Parish  Histoiy  is  that  it 
arrays  the  political  events  of  other  days  in  a  guise  in  which  they  can 


scarcely  fail  to  intei'est  and  attract.  The  Reformation,  the  Restoration, 
the  Revolution — what  are  they  to  many  but  names  recalling  the  irksome 
tasks  of  their  school-days  ?  The  strongest  inducement  to  study  anew 
these  crises,  jDregnant  in  consequences  not  yet  exhausted,  is  offered  when 
it  is  shown  how  they  affected  the  lives  of  the  men  and  women  who  lived 
amidst  the  natural  surroundings  which  are  familiar  and  homelike  to  us 
to-day,  and  how  they  caused  the  deepest  anxieties,  or  produced  feelings 
of  relief  and  freedom,  in  the  minds  of  those  whose  descendants  we  are. 

The  following  pages  contain  a  good  deal  about  Kilbarchan,  though 
perhaps  not  all  that  should  have  been  written,  and  certainly  not  all  that 
might  be  written.  To  produce  a  perfect  work  one  would  require  to  have 
access  to  family  papers,  a  privilege  not  granted  to  me,  to  make  a  search 
absolutely  exhaustive,  which  circumstances  precluded,  to  be  gifted  with 
an  instinct  for  making  the  best  selections,  which  is  rare,  and  to  be 
possessed  of  the  skill  of  long  experience  to  direct  the  piecing  of  the 
fragments  together.  Yet  after  a  reduction  is  made  under  each  of  these 
heads,  I  may  be  permitted  to  express  the  hope  that  the  book  Avill  be 
found  to  contain  a  fair  selection  of  the  events  of  which  Kilbarchan  was 
the  theatre,  and  that  in  it  has  been  brought  together  much  that  could  be 
found  otherwise  only  by  a  prolonged  and  patient  search  through  many 
volumes. 

Amongst  those  to  whom  my  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due,  for 
the  assistance  they  have  rendered,  are  : — the  Rev.  Dr.  Metcalfe,  whose 
learning  and  taste  make  his  advice  as  valuable  as  his  urbanity  and 
patience  render  his  criticism  welcome ;  Mr.  J.  Barclay  Murdoch  of 
Capelrig,  who  kindly  read  the  first  chapter  in  manuscript,  and  who,  I 
believe,  generally  approA^es  of  what  is  \A'ritten  there  ;  Mr.  Horatius 
Bonar,  W.S.,'  to  whom  I  owe  the  information  regarding  the  Knoxes  and 
Ranfurly  ;  Dr.  Alexander  Macbain,  Inverness,  and  my  uncle,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Dunbar,  Weem,  who  read  in  manuscrijjt  my  chapter  on  Place-names, 
and  made  several  suggestions,  though  they  are  not  to  be  held  as  approving 

1  It  is  due  to  Mr.  Bonar  to  state  that  though  he  helped  me  largely  with  information,  I  have 
not  presented  it  in  the  form  in  which  he  supplied  it ;  his  corrections  may  be  found  in  Appendix 
II.,  p.  292. 


PREFACE.  !>;• 

of  all    the    explanations    oflfered ;    and    my  life-long   friend,  Dr.   George 
Soutar,  Helensburgh,  who  has  read  nearly  all  the  revised  proofs. 

I  have  also  to  express  my  thanks  for  documents  lent  or  information 
received  to  the  following :— The  Lairds  of  Craigends  and  of  Johnstone,  and 
Colonel  Cuninghame  of  Belmont  (whose  ancestors,  by  the  way,  made  a 
good  deal  of  Kilbarchan  History),  Mr.  Macdowall  of  Garthland,  Mr. 
Shand  Harvey  of  Castle  Semple,  Mr.  Speir  of  Blackstone,  Mr.  Carruth  of 
Callochant,  Mr.  Craig  of  Monkland,  Mr.  Holmes  of  Gladstone,  Mr.  James 
Caldwell,  Paisley  ;  Mr.  O.  G.  MacGregor,  Church  Street ;  the  late  Mr. 
Peter  Lyle  ;  Mr.  John  Barbour,  High  Barholm  ;  Mr.  James  Speirs,  Low 
Barholm;  Mr.  Matthew  Love,  High  Barholm ;  the  late  Mr.  Glegg ;  Mr. 
Walter  Williamson,  Beith  ;  Mr.  Boyd  Anderson ;  Mr.  John  Boyd,  Low 
Barholm;  Mr.  Andrew  Purdon ;  Mr.  William  Gilmour ;  Mi-.  Daniel 
Brown  ;  Mr.  Kerr,  Greenock  ;  Mr.  Macfarlane,  Elderslie ;  Mr.  Renwick, 
Glasgow  City  Chambers  ;  Mr.  Maitland  Anderson,  St.  Andrews  Univer- 
sity ;  Professor  Bernard,  T.C.D.  ;  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  Dubhn  ;  Professor 
Anwyl,  Oxford ;  Mr.  John  H.  Romanes,  W.S.  ;  Mr.  Grant,  Lyon  Office  ; 
Mr.  Taylor,  Paisley  Museum  ;  Rev.  William  Davidson,  St.  Margaret's, 
Johnstone  ;  Canon  O'Hanlon,  Dublin  ;  Rev.  Adam  Wilson  ;  Rev.  Thomas 
Carruthers,  and  (in  the  words  of  old  charters)  many  others. 

For  the  illustrations  I  am  indebted  to  the  following  ladies  and 
gentlemen  : — Mrs.  Agnew,  Warriston  House,  Edinburgh  ;  Miss  Mary  M. 
Joly,  Clonbologue,  Co.  Kildare  ;  Miss  Stevenson,  Wardend  ;  Miss  Anna  L. 
Williamson,  Beith  ;  Mr.  Bonar,  Mr.  A.  W.  Finlayson,  Mr.  James  Howie, 
and  Mr.  James  Mann.  The  Coats  of  Arms  in  the  Old  Church  were 
drawn  by  my  sister.  Miss  A.  D.  MacKenzie,  who  changed  the  tinctures 
into  the  conventional  black  and  white  symbols,  and  they  were  afterwards 
photographed  by  Mr.  James  Howie;  and  the  Plan  of  Old  Kilbarchan  was 
prepared  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Howie,  Architect. 

With  regard  to  the  extraordinary  variety  displayed  throughout  tlie 
book  in  the  spelling  of  the  names  of  persons  and  places,  it  may  be 
explained  that,  not  wishing  to  incur  the  responsibility  of  helping  to 
stereotype  any  form,  I  have  usually  employed  that  found  in  the  source 
from  which  my  information  on  that  special  point  has  been  drawn. 

Kilbarchan,  May,  1902. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER    I. — Bou.vDAEiEs    of    Kilbarchan    and    Geological 

Record,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       1 

Basis  on  which  the  Division  into  Parishes  proceeds — Earliest  mention  of  the  PARISH  OF 
KILBARCHAN — Its  shape  and  extent — The  South-East  boundary — the  North  boundary — 
Houston  cis  GryfFe — The  West  boundary — Lochwinnoch  cis  St.  Bride's  Burn — Acreage — 
AYhere  the  oldest  Records  are  to  be  found — Scientific  division  of  Kilbarchan — Natural  agents 
which  have  been  at  work  here  :  Eruptive  Rock — Clochoderick  stone — Volcanic  ash  :  Intru- 
sive Rock— The  Barrhill— Dyke  near  Riverees  :  Sedimentary  Rock— Bore  at  Linwood— 
Indications  of  drift  in  early  seas  :  Glacier  action — Where  glacier  scratches  may  be  looked 
for — Production  and  deposition  of  tiU — Twenty  fathoms  of  Glacier  deposit — Vale  of  Kilbarchan 
the  bed  of  an  ice  stream  :  A  river  which  has  reversed  its  current — Earth  movements  and  their 
result— Old  sea  beach  at  W.  Fulton— B-jre  here  :  Alluvium- Maxwell's  Theory  of  Mosses  : 
Zeolites  at  Pinuel  Brae— Petrifying  well  at  Locher  Mill. 

CHAPTER  11— The  Saints  of  Kilbarchan,  ...  ...     11 

Explanation  of  KILBARCHAN — How  a  church  was  founded — Many  Saints  with  names 
similar  to  Barchan  —  How  our  Barchan  may  be  identified  —  Citation  of  calendars — 
Drummond  calendar — Martyrology  of  Donegal — Felire  of  Ollngus — Gorman's  Martyrology — 
Conflicting  views  —  Bishop  Forbes  —  Martyrology  of  Tallagh — Camerarius  —  Opinions  of 
Cosmo  Innes,  Dr.  Reeves,  etc. — Possible  meaning  of  "Barchan" — Pedigree  of  Bearchan 
— "The  man  of  two  parts" — Prophetic  fragments — Felire  of  CEngus  quoted — His  church, 
cairn,  and  well  at  Clonsast— O'Donovan  at  Clonsast  in  1837— Clonsast  in  1900— Colgan's 
Birchanus — "Church  of  tlie  Four  Illustrious  " — Ara's  Isle — Archbishop  Ussher  quoted  — 
When  did  Barchan  live  ? — His  fame  as  a  prophet — His  cryptic  prophecies — History  as 
prophecy— What  it  is  possible  that  Barchan  did  write.— St.  Mary,  the  Virgin — Her  altar 
in  KIL-barchan — St.  Catharine's  Chapel — The  Saint's  festival— Probable  reason  for  this 
Saint  being  chosen— Her  learning— Missionary  success— Persecution  and  death— Popularity 
in  Europe— Patroness  of  schools— Monastery  on  Mount  Sinai  visited  by  Kilbarchan  ladies- 
Other  St.  Catharines— St.  Bridget- Birth  and  early  consecration— Miracles— Connection 
with  St.  Patrick— Her  death— St.  Marnock— Possible  connection  with  Kilbarchan— His 
fame — A  Relic  and  its  uses — Places  where  his  memory  was  celebrated. 

CHAPTER  III. — Kilbarchan  in  Roman  Catholic  Times,        ...     28 

Influence  OF  Paisley  Abbey— Earliest  notice  of  Kilbarchan— Walter,  son  of  Alan— Infeudatiou 
of  Renfrewshire — Former  condition  of  the  County — Vassal  knights— -Monasticism  as  a  civili- 
zer- The  carriicate  between  the  Cart  and  the  Gryflfe— Where  does  the  Gryfle  end  ?— A 
church  as  a  gift — Rectorial  tithes — Vicarage  tithes — Fees — Manse,  garden,  and  glebe — 
Clerical  outlay — The  impersonal  i>arsnn — Penuld  or  Fulton — A  substantial  pious  gift — 
Ancient   boundaries  still   traceable— Master  Antony,    the  Pliysician,   and   his  fee— Thomas, 


xii.  CONTENTS. 

son  of  Nicolas — Hugo,  son  of  Reginald — Achinclioss — Thomas  of  Fulton  and  Matilda  his 
wife — The  monastery  in  debt — William  Urri — Goldfridiis  of  Nesbit — Fishing  on  the  Cart — 
Kilbarchan  tenants  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Influence  of  the  Collegiate 
Church  of  Sempill — What  is  a  Collegiate  Church? — Secondary  education  four  centuries 
ago — dedication — The  fourth  chaplain — Upper  Pennale — Robert  Reid's  house — East  and 
West  Bryntschelis — The  ffth  chaplain — Nethir  Pennale  and  the  mill  thereof — Musical 
education — Kilbarclian  Parish  Clerkship  provides  bursaries — East  Welland  (or  Weitland) — 
St.  Bryde's  Chapel — Meaning  of  the  '  Chapel  of  Nethir  Pennale ' — Once  the  Church's  always 
the  Church's.  Church  Offices  and  Officials  in  Kilbarchvn— T/ie  Ficaj-ajfe— Kilbar- 
chan vicars — Slender  salaries — The  Dean's  visits — Master  John  of  Kilberhan — Roger  of 
Kilberchan — Finlay  of  Clochoderick  (?) — Important  mission  for  the  vicar — James  Shaw — 
Henry  Moss — John  MacQueen — Tenants  on  the  Church  lands — The  Chaplaincy  of  l<f. 
Catharine's— The  foundation  charter— The  last  chaplain— TAe  Parish  Clerkship— The  office 
— Depletion  of  its  endowment — St.  Bride's  Chapel — The  chapel  at  Prieston. 

CHAPTER  IV. — Kilbarchan  after  the  1\eform.a.tion,  1567-1646,     51 

Date  of  the  Reformation,  1560  or  1507 — Lack  of  responsible  clergy — Readers — Salaries — What 
became  of  the  wealth  of  the  old  Church — The  Abbey  lands — The  Kirk  lands — The  chaplaincy 
of  St.  Katharine's — Claud  Hamilton's  Kilbarchan  possessions — Provision  for  minister  or 
rector — Vicars,  John  Cvvynynghame,  Gawyn  Harniniltoun — Readers,  Watsoun,  Cnnynghame, 
Cwik,  Crawford — Ministers,  Fleming,  Levingstonn,  Bell,  Stirling,  Hamilton — The  Vicar  acts 
as  Reader — The  jogges  and  lynnen  clothes — John  Knox  of  Ranferly  profanes  the  Sabbath — 
Slays  his  uncle — Robert  Cochran's  aggravated  assault — Holiday  makers  and  their  penalty — 
Pypeirs  and  daunceris — Withstanding  a  presentee — The  Presbytery's  Act — Mr.  Hamilton 
defies  the  Presbytery — Professes  penitence  and  gives  proof  thereof — .Absentees  frura  the 
Communion — Noble  papists — The  Presbytery  encourages  the  Minister  to  persevere — Sabbath 
breakers — What  Presbytery  aocomplislied — Value  of  Church  discipline — A  minister  who  needed 
a  bishop. 

CHAPTER  V. — The  Stirlings  and  their  Time — Latter  Half 

OF  THE  Seventeenth  Century,...  ...  ...  ...     68 

Jambs  Glendinning — Locvm  ttnens  1646-9— His  early  career— Unsuccessful  ettbi  ts  to  get  him 
presented — His  philanthropy — His  continued  interest  in  Kilbarchan — John  Stirling,  1649- 
62,  1672-83 — A  clerical  family — His  brothers — "The  holy  groaner  " — James  Stirling,  author 
of  JVa/j/ita?i— Hiding  the  Presbytery  Records— John's  conversion  and  early  difficulties— His 
nurse  and  foster-father — His  capabilities — Trials  for  license — Good  advice — Procedure  at  an 
ordination  250  years  ago — Kilbarchan  New  Manse — Disciplining  Engagers — Charmers  and  war- 
locks— The  minister  as  a  recruiting  officer — A  war  fund  long  ago — A  too  candid  parishioner — 
How  to  deal  with  papists— Keeping  Yule  at  Castle  Sempill— The  ecclesiastical  boycott- 
Ministers  kept  busy — Fasts — Parishioners  of  less  than  no  repute — Satan's  revenge — Week-day 
and  hall  preaching — How  the  Restoration  afl'ected  Kilbarchan — Mr.  Stirling  as  an  "  outed  " 
minister,  1662-72 — A  spirited  minister's  wife — Mr.  Stirling  as  an  '"  indulged  "  minister,  1672-8S 
— His  colleague — Loss  of  popularity — Conventicles  as  rivals  to  church  services — Confusion  in 
discipline  cases— Lawburrows— The  Highland  Host  in  Kilbarchan— A  bland  minister— Por- 
tentous noise  in  churches— An  obstinate  schoolmaster— John  Stirling's  last  day's  work— His 
illness  and  death— Appreciations— James  Stirling's  incumbency,  1688-99— His  early  piety- 
License,  call  and  ordination — The  meeting-house  and  the  church — Mr.  Stirling's  missions — 
Calls  to  Aberdeen  and  Barony  (Glasgow) — Deforcing  the  Presbytery  officer — Provision  for  a 
schoolmaster— Sons  of  Kilbarchan  Manse  in  liigh  places— Who  preached  to  Rob  Roy  ?— 
Portents,  and  how  they  were  interpreted — The  Stirling  legacies. 


CONTEXTS.  xm. 

CHAPTER  VI.— The  Corates  in  Ktlbarchan,  ...  ...     9& 

Sottish  Episcopacy  as  by  law  established-  The  Curates— Their  Church  service— David  Pierson 
Visitation  of  Kilbarchan— A  rejected  elder— Provision  for  a  schoolmaster— Refusing  to  be  an 
elder— Throwing  snowballs  into  the  Church— A  Kilbarchan  lady  at  Houston  Church— Un- 
baptised  Children— A  breach  of  promise- An  unbridled  tongue— Lord  Sempil  again  to  be 
interviewed— Charities— Tlie  unlicensed  chaplain  at  Johnstone— A  faithful  curate— Archibald 
Wilson— His  session— Preparing  for  a  Communion — Reformation  of  Kilbarchan  morals  and 
manners- The  minister  sued  by  a  maid-servant— Contemporary  political  events— Kilbarchan 
Presbyterian  Meeting  House— Rabbling  the  Curates. 

CHAPTER  VIT.— A  Kilbarchax  Gentleman  of  the  Seven- 
teenth Century  —  William  Cdninghame,  Younger,  of 
Craigends,      ...  ...  ■••  •••  •••  ■••  1^^ 


Church  and  State  difficulties  of  the  time— Domestic  arrangements- The  value  of  reticence— 
The  heir's  provision— Boarding  with  a  mother  and  with  a  mother-in-law— Cost  of  living  in 
Edinburgh- Gentleman's  gentlemen— Lady's  ladies— Farm  rents— A  moonlight  flitting— 
Horse-couping— The  loupin-on-stane  at  Robert  King's  house-end— Ne'ear  days  in  1674-5— 
How  to  treat  a  stepson— Lucky  schoolboys— Needy  relatives— Our  minister's  son— A  Kil- 
barchan poet  in  extremity— The  Kirk  plate— Outed  ministers— Parish  poor— Beggars  with 
a  testimonial— Beggars  at  the  gate-Beggars  at  the  Kirk  door— Drink-money— A  Presby- 
terian's relaxations— Prognostications— The  study  at  Craigends  and  its  books— Quartering  tlie 
Highland  Host— A  landlord's  cares  and  responsibilities— Funeral  garments,  church  stools, 
servants'  guilds,  s/iot«es— Departing  footsteps. 

CHAPTER  Vni.— The  Poll  Tax  Roll— 1695,  ...  ...    118 

Purpose  of  the  Tax— Its  gradation  and  incidence— Roll  for  Kilbarchane  Parochine— Notes  on 
the  Hows  of  Damptouu,  the  Hairs  of  Nethir  Pennell,  the  Craigs  of  Monkland,  and  the  Youngs 
of  Weitlands— The  Cochrane  Succession  Case— The  Semples  of  Middletou. 

CHAPTER  IX.— Kilbarchan  during  the  Eighteenth  Century 
—Ecclesiastical  and  Educational  Affairs  and  the  Pro- 
vision FOR  the  Poor,  ...  ...  ...  •■•  ...   144 

Parish  ministers  in  the  eighteenth  century-Johnslone— Warner,  the  agriculturist— Maxwell, 
contributor  to  the  Old  Statistical  Account— The  Secession  Congregation  at  Burntsliiels— The 
Burgher  Kirk  and  its  ministers— M'Cara— Lindsay— Wylie— Relief  congregation  at  Kilbar- 
chan—The  Church  and  its  first  minister,  John  Maclaren— A  new  parish  church  at  Kilbarchan 
—Two  classes  of  heritors-A  new  manse— Latin  inscriptions— EDUCATioNAL-Schools  and 
schoolmasters- Tenent— Cowie,  the  recalcitrant— Reid,  the  unencouraged— Michael  Garner— 
Simson— Ferguson-Manson-The  school  of  1751-Rebuilt  in  1782— School  at  Burntshiels- 
Hallam— Portertield,  the  cobbler— The  Poor— How  the  Session  provided  for  them— A  badge 
given  to  the  deserving— Great  number  of  beggars— Kirk  Session  finance— Income  and  expendi- 
ture, 1742  and  1769— Educating  the  children  of  the  poor— Liberal-minded  charity— Variety  of 
charitable  schemes-Sources  of  Kirk  Session's  income-The  kirk  plate— Banking  business  and 
leaacies-Boydsyard-Mortcloths— Confiscation  and  booking  money— Irregular  marriages- 
Other  sources  of  income-Pew  rents-Provision  for  Poor  after  1785-Asses8ment-THB  CoM- 
MONiOK- Privy  censures  and  collections— Putting  up  the  tent— Casting  tokens— Burntshiels 
communions. 


xiv.  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. — Industrial  and  Social  Condition  of  Kilbarchan 

IN  THE  Eighteenth  Century,    ...  ...  ...  ...171 

Population — Great  increase  during  the  eighteenth  century — Distribution  of  the  population  be- 
tween the  village  and  the  country — Industries — Agriculture  on  the  lower  and  on  the  higher 
ground — Rotation  of  crops — Cattle  and  horses — Mills  and  tliirlage — Weaving  and  weavers' 
earnings  a  century  ago — Cotton  Mills  at  Bridge  of  Weir,  Linwood  and  Kilbarchan — Bleaching 
—  Mining — Waulk-and  Lint-Mills  —  Linen-and  cotton-thread  —  Candle-making  —  Brewing  — 
Tobacco-growing — Fairs  and  Amusements — Lily's  and  Barchan's  Days — Procession  at  the 
Slimmer  Fair — Quarrelsome  gentlemen — A  subscription  race — Jockeying  at  the  Kilbarchan 
Races — "  Courtiu'  Monday" — The  game  of  bullets — Recruiting  and  Esugraiion — Kilbarchan 
deserters — Living,  Dress  and  Manners — Increasing  politeness — Pickery— Thigging  curses 
— Hame-sucken — Poaching — Societies — Farmer  Society — General  Society — Weaver  Society — 
Masonic  Lodge. 

CHAPTER  XL — Kilbarchan   Baronies  and  the  Family  His- 
tories OF  the  Barons,  ...  ...  ...  ...   187 

Cuninghame  of  Craigends — Connection  with  the  Earl  of  Glencairn — The  Shake-Fork — Legends 
and  Theories — Pedigree  1100-1418  a.d. — Cuninghame-Montgomerie  feud — Slaughter  of  the 
second  Laird — Gabriel,  who  fell  at  Pinkie — The  fifth  Laird's  public  appointments — The 
Mayoralty  of  fees  and  Coronership — A  Divinity  Professor  at  Craigends — Craigends,  the 
Diarist,  in  the  Edinburgh  Tolbooth — Members  of  Parliament — Subsequent  lairds  :  Ckaufurd 
OP  Auchinames — Connection  with  the  Earl  of  Loudoun — The  two  lances  in  Saltire — Founda- 
tion of  St.  Katharine's  Chapel — Robert,  who  fell  at  Flodden — The  seventh  Laird  as  a  neigh- 
bour— Gadgirth  as  a  tulchan — The  last  will  and  testament  of  Lady  Auchinames — A  mariage  de 
convenance — The  sixteenth  Laird  sells  Auchinames — Subsequent  history  :  Sempill  of  Castle 
Sempill — Connection  with  Kilbarchan — The  nine  Sempills  of  Elliestoun — Foundation  of  the 
Collegiate  Church  of  Sempill — The  Baronies  of  Craginfeauch  and  of  Sempill — The  Great  Lord 
Sempill — His  part  in  the  Cuninghame-Montgomerie  feud — The  siege  of  Castle  Sempill — The 
romantic  career  of  Colonel  William  Sempill — Sale  of  the  Sheriffdom — Sale  of  the  Lordship  of 
Castle  Sempill — The  twelfth  lord  at  CuUoden — Subsequent  history. 

CHAPTER    Xn. — Historical    Families    Connected    with   Kil- 
barchan,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  223 

Knox  of  Kanfurly  [1440-1006]  and  Knox  of  Selvieland  [1320- 1627J— Sempill  of  Beltrees  and 
Thirdpart  [1558-1810]— Houstoun  of  Johnstone  [1615-1733J— Napier  of  Blackstoun  [1650?- 
1843]— Macdowall  of  Castle  Semple  and  Carruth  [I7li7-  J— Napier  of  Milliken  [1733-1886] 
—Harvey  of  Castle  Semple  [1810  ?-  ]— Captain  Stirling  of  Glentyan  [1817-72]— Speir  of 
Blackstoun  [1843-        ]. 

CHAPTER  Xni.— Places  and  Place  Names,  ...  ...   243 

Earliest  inhabitants  of  Strathclyde — The  Damnonii — Celtic  Kingdom  of  Strathclyde — Gaelic 
becomes  the  vernacular — English  influences  after  1057 — Classification  of  Place  Names — 
Phonetic  decay — Hybrid  derivations  defended — Alphabetical  list  of  names  and  possible 
explanations — The  Barbours  of  Auchinames  and  of  Law — The  Semples  of  Cartside — The 
Wallaces  of  Johnstone — Proprietors  of  Penneld — Ranfurly,  its  divisions,  Castle,  and 
antiquities — The  Speirs  of   Wardhouse — The  Montgomeries  of  Weitlands. 


CONTENTS.  XV. 

CHAPTER  XIV.— Odds  and  Ends,...  ...  ...  ...  266 

The  Clergy  of  Kilbarchan— Lay  Office-bearers  in  the  Parish  Church — Note  on  the  Parish  Church 
— Quoad  Sacra  Parishes — Extracts  from  Craufurd's  Protocol  Book — Note  on  Town-foot — 
Chartism  in  Kilbarchan — Poets   and   Men  of  Note — Present-day   Kilbarchan. 

APPENDIX     I— Rental    of   Mbs.    Napier's    Estate   of    Kil- 
barchan, ...  ...  ...  ...     285 

XL— Additional    Notes    on    Ranfurly,    by   Mr. 

HORATIUS   BONAR,    W.S.,  ...  ...       292 

,,           III. — The  Descendants  of  Bailie  Barbour,         ...     293 
INDEX,  295 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Kilbarchan  Old  Pakish  Church,        ---_-__  Frontisjnece 
Ruins  of  St.  Berchan's  Church,         ------   To  face  pci^e  17 

St.  Berchan's  Stone,  Cairn,  and  Thorn,  ------„         25 

Tejii'ull  an  Cheathrair  Aluinn,  i.e..  Church  of  the  Four  Illustrious,     „         33 
Specimen  Page  of  MANuscRipr  of  One  of  St.   Berchan's  Prophecies,  „         33 

Penuld  or   Penwold,  ---------         ^^         41 

Blackstone,        -----------„         41 

Kilbarchan  Cro.ss  and  Steeple,  -------„         8& 

Old  and  New  Parish  Churches,         -------         ^^         89 

Old  House  of  Craigends,  -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         ,,193 

Craigends,  -----.--.-_         ^^       193 

Merchiston,       -----------„       145 

Panoramic  View  of  Kilbarchan,        -         -         -         -  -         -         -         ,,145 

Ruins  of  Ranfurly  Castle,       -         -         -         -         -         -         -         -         ,,257 

Heraldic  Shields  in  Kilbarchan  Old  Parish  Church,       -         -         -         „       265 
Talismanic  Brooch  and  Ring,  --------,,       2(55 

Habbie  Slmpson  (from  an  Old  Paint'in"),  -         -         -         -         -         -         ,,281 

MAPS    AND    PLANS. 

Map  of  Kilbarchan,  .---.._,    y^  face  page     1 

Ground  Plan  of  Ranfurly  Castle,  ------         ^^       261 

Plan  of  Town-foot  of  Kilbarchan,  ...-.-  273 


MAP   OF  KFLBARCHAN 


KILBARCHAN. 


CHAPTER   I. 
Boundaries  of  Kilbarchan  and  Geological  Record. 

The  physical  construction  of  any  country  is  no  small  part  of  its  history  ;  it  is  the  key  to  not  a  little 
in  the  political  destiny  of  the  land  and  its  folk. 

— E.  A.  Freeman's  Methods  of  Historical  Survey. 

Bases  on  which  tlie  Division  into  Parishes  proceeds— Earliest  mention  of  the  PARISH  OF 
KILBAROH.A.N^Its  shape  and  extent— The  South-East  boundary— the  North  boundary- 
Houston  cis  GryfFe — The  West  boundary — Lochwinnoch  cis  St.  Bride's  Burn — Acreage — 
Where  the  oldest  Records  are  to  be  found — Scientific  division  of  Kilbarchan — Natural  agents 
which  have  been  at  work  here  :  Eruptive  Rock — Clochoderick  stone — Volcanic  ash  :  Intktj- 
SIVE  Rock — The  Barrhill — Dyke  near  Riverees  :  Sedimentary  Rock — Bore  at  Linwood — 
Indications  of  drift  in  early  seas  :  Glacier  action— Where  glacier  scratches  may  lie  looked 
for — Production  and  deposition  of  till — Twenty  fathoms  of  Glacier  deposit — Vale  of  Kilbarchan 
the  bed  of  an  ice  stream  :  A  river  which  has  reversed  its  current — Earth  movements  and  their 
result — Old  sea  beach  at  W.  Fulton — Bore  here  ;  Alluvium — Maxwell's  Theory  of  Mosses  ; 
Zeolites  at  Pinnel  Brae — Petrifying  well  at  Locher  Mill. 

The  division  of  Scotland  into  parislies  seems  neither  to  have  taken  place 
at  the  same  period  throughout  the  country'-,  nor  to  liave  been  made  on  a 
uniform  basis.  Though  the  division  was  made  in  the  first  instance  for 
ecclesiastical  convenience  only,  it  yet  proceeded  by  taking  largely  into 
account  the  proprietorship  of  land  ;  sometimes  the  lands  owned  by  one 
proprietor  and  containing  a  baptismal  church  were  recognised  as  a  Parish, 
and  sometimes  the  lands  of  two  or  three  proprietors  were  taken  together 
for  the  purpose.  It  is  therefore  likely  that  old  landowners'  marches 
generally  determine  parish   boundaries. 

Tlie  earliest  mention  of  the  Parish  of  Kilbarchan,  so  far  as  we  have 
been  able  to  discovex",  occurs  in  a  charter  of  "  Robert  Ciaufurd  of  Auchin- 
names,"  recorded  Feb.  23,  1483-4,  by  which  he  concedes  to  his  son  James 
"  the  lands  of  Auchinnames,  County  of  Renfrew,  along  with  the  patronage 
of  the  chapel  of  St.  Katrine  in   the  Parish  of  Kilbrachane."  '       Whether 

'fi'eiy.   Mag.   Sij.,  A.D.    1125-1513,    No.   1579.      "Church  of  Kilberhan "   occurs  as  early  as 
1175-99  A.D.,  Rerj.  de  Pass.,  p.  109. 


2  KILBARCHAN. 

the  boundaries  of  the  Parish  as  then  recognised  corresponded  with  the 
boundaries  we  are  about  to  indicate,  we  do  not  know  ;  possibly  parish 
boundaries,  often  tinkered  at  for  various  purposes  in  recent  times,  were 
similarly  dealt  with  long  ago.' 

The  Parish  of  Kilbarchan  is  in  the  middle  of  the  County  of  Renfrew. 
In  shape  it  suggests  a  triangle,  though  its  sides  are  not  straight  lines.  Its 
rounded  apex  lies  to  the  East,  its  irregular  base  to  the  West,  one  side  to  the 
South-East,  and  another  side  to  the  North.  It  is  about  seven  miles  along 
its  extreme  length  and  about  four  miles  along  its  base.  The  boundaries 
are  partly  natural  and  partly  artificial — indeed  the  boundary,  where  it 
might  quite  well  be  natural,  e.g.  the  course  of  a  rivulet,  is  often  rendered 
artificial  by  being  not  the  stream  itself,  but  a  fence  alongside  which  is 
sometimes  on  one  side  of  the  stream  and  sometimes  on  the  other." 

TJie  South-East  side  of  the  Kilbarchan  triangle  is  defined  by  the 
Black  Cart  from  its  origin  in  Castle  Semple  Loch  to  its  confluence  with 
the  Gryflfe  below  Blackstone. 

Tlie  North  side  of  the  triangle  is  the  Gryfte,  from  the  point  where 
the  Carruth  Burn  enters  it  near  Torr,  until  the  Gryffe  meets  the  Black 
Cart  below  Blackstone.  A  portion  of  Houston  Parish,  however,  crosses 
the  Gryflfe  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Linwood  Moss  and  cuts  a  rectangular 
notch  out  of  Kilharchan  on  the  North  side.  The  reason  of  this  may 
possibly  be  that  Houstoun  of  Houston  acquired  rights  to  cast  peats  in 
Linwood  Moss,  and  obtained  land  enough  contiguous  to  his  own,  though 
across  the  water,  to  secure  his  access  and  for  a  drying  ground. 

Tlie  base  of  the  triangle,  a  very  irregular  line,  runs  generally  North 
and  South.  One-third  of  this  base,  from  South  to  North,  is  formed  by 
the  St.  Bride's  Burn  and  the  road  alongside  going  from  How  wood  to  Kil- 
malcolm, the  extreme  points  being  the  mouth  of  the  burn  and  a  point,  X, 
on  the  road,  half-way  between  Greenside  Road  end  and  How  Barnaigh. 
Ano'Jier  third  of  the  base,  from  North  to  South,  is  formed  by  the  Carruth 
Burn,  from  where  it  enters  the  Gryffe  below  Torr  until  a  point  where  a 
branch  of  it  crosses  the  road  from  Howwood  to  Kilmalcolm,  near  Barn- 
brock.  The  remainder  of  the  base,  lying  between  these  two  parts,  con- 
sists of  the   boundaries   of  a   triangular  portion   of  Lochwinnoch    which 


^  The  Presbytery  of  Paisley  were  engaged  in  perambulating  and  settling  the  boundaries  of 
Bonie  of  their  parishes  as  late  as  1689-90. 

^  A  legal  friend  informs  me  that  while  the  frontier  landowners'  march  is  the  fence,  if  it  has 
been  accepted  as  such  fur  forty  years,  the  real  parish  boundary  is  the  hum. 


BOUNDARIES   AND   GEOLOGICAL   RECORD.  3 

makes  a  deep  notch  in  Kilbarchan  at  this  point.  One  of  the  sides  of 
this  triangular  notch  is  the  Locher  from  Barnbrock  until  the  point  where 
a  rivulet — which  we  shall  indicate  as  Y — rising  in  Marshall  Moor,  falls 
into  it  at  Lavvmarnoch  Wood  ;  the  other  side  is  the  rivulet  Y  and  a  fence 
which  connects  the  point  X  with  the  source  of  this  rivulet.  This  gusset 
of  Lochwinnoch  lying  in  to  Kilbarchan  on  the  West  seems  to  result 
from  the  boundaries  of  the  Paisley  monks'  lands  of  Moniabrock.  In  the 
charter  by  which  Alan,  son  of  Walter,  makes  these  lands  over  to  the 
Abbey  (a.d.  1204)  mention  is  made  as  a  boundary  of  "  a  burn  which  runs 
below  Craghenbroc,  and  goes  down  to  Lughor  ;  "  '  this  Inu-n  is  probably 
that  referred  to  above  as  Y. 

The  superficial  extent  of  Kilbarchan,  quoad  civilia,  is  909S'421  acres. 

The  oldest  records  of  a  parish  are  to  be  found,  not  in  the  charter 
chests  of  the  local  landed  proprietors,  nor  in  the  chartulary  of  the  neigh- 
bouring religious  house,  nor  yet  in  the  minute  books  of  Presbytery  or 
Kirk  Session,  but  in  the  rocks  and  soils,  the  hills  and  dales  which  give  to 
its  landscapes  their  characteristic  and  pleasing  variety.  The  rocky 
fragments  piled  up  in  majestic  confusion  on  Marshall  Moor,  the  limestone 
shivers  still  to  be  picked  up  at  the  old  workings  east  of  Bridge  of  Weir 
Railway  Station,  the  terraces  which  break  the  monotony  of  our  hilly 
ascents  on  the  west,  the  rounded  forms  of  some  of  the  lower  bills — have 
all  tales  to  tell  of  startling  changes,  of  conditions  and  forces,  which  were 
already  all  an  old  story  when  the  first  adventurer  of  human  form  pene- 
trated into  the  wilderness  or  forest  which  lay  between  the  Black  Cart 
and  the  Gryffe. 

If  we  consult  the  map  published  by  the  Geological  Survey,  we 
shall  find  that  the  Parish  of  Kilbarchan  is  divided  into  two  parts,  nearly 
equal,  by  a  very  irregidar  line  beginning  where  the  Cart  leaves  Castle 
Semple  Loch,  and  ending  at  a  point  on  the  Gryffe  near  Lint  white  Farm. 
Perhaps  less  clearly,  still  quite  perceptibly,  this  important  division  of  the 
Parish  is  marked  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  If  we  start  from  the 
point  where  the  St.  Bride's  Burn  enters  tlie  Loch  of  Castle  Semple,  and 
walk  in  a  direction  generally  North-Easterly,  keeping  Drygate  Farm  on 
our  left  and  Tliirdpart  Hall  on  our  right,  and  so  on,  between  Faulds  and 
Cartside,  between  Strathview  and  Tower  House  ;  and  then  if,  regardless 
of  obstacles  in  the  shape  of  houses  and  garden  walls,  we  make  for  the 
New  Street    entrance    to    the    Public    Pai'k   and    continue    our  journey 

'Reg.  de  Pass.,  p.  13. 


4  KILBARCHAN. 

towards  Gryfte,  having  Piiinel  on  our  left  and  Waterstone  on  our  right, 
we  shall  doubtless  be  conscious  that  all  the  time  we  are  walking  on  or 
near  the  slope  of  a  hill,  its  top  to  our  left,  its  base  to  our  right ;  now  this 
declivity  corresponds  very  nearly  with  the  dividing  line  in  the  geological 
niaj).  The  importance  of  this  division  lies  in  the  fact  that  to  our  left,  the 
West,  the  rock  is  volcanic,  due  to  the  cataclysmic  influence  of  the  earth's 
interior  heat,  and  to  our  right,  the  East,  the  rocks  are,  with  only  two  or 
three  exceptions,  sedimentary  {e.g.,  limestone,  sandstone,  shale),  that  is, 
they  have  been  laid  down  by  the  agency  or  in  the  presence  of  water. 
The  district  to  the  West  of  this  irregular  line,  where  the  igneous  rock 
abounds,  is  usually  called  the  higher  part  of  the  parish,  and  that  to  the 
East,  where  the  rock  is  sedimentary,  the  lower  part.  The  three  principal 
agents  which  form  and  sliape  the  crust  of  the  earth — the  volcano,  the 
ocean,  and  the  glacier — have  left  behind  them  in  our  neighbourhood 
records,  silent  but  impressive,  of  agents  and  forces  which  have  long  ceased 
to  be  active  and  present  here. 

The  material  wliiuh  has  gone  to  form  the  low  iiills  which  occupy 
the  HIGHER  part  of  the  Parish,  is  the  lava  flow  from  old  volcanoes,^ 
the  sites  of  which  cannot  now  with  certainty  be  determined.  The  lava, 
after  leaving  the  crater,  spread  itself  over  the  surface  of  the  sur- 
rounding ground  in  layer  after  layer,  and  slowly  cooling,  formed  the 
rocks  which  are  to  be  seen  in  some  places  on  the  surface,  but  in 
other  places  are  to  be  found  only  after  digging  through  several  feet  of 
superincumbent  gravel  and  clay.  The  successive  layers  of  the  lava  flow 
cannot  now  be  distinguished,  or  else  no  cutting  has  been  made  deep 
enough  to  get  past  the  layer  last  laid  down.  The  parts  exposed,  e.g., 
the  rock  faces  at  the  Greenside  and  Waterstone  Quarries,  show  an 
imperfectly  columnar  structure.  The  stones  are  not  by  any  means 
all  of  the  same  appearance  and  texture,  but  they  are  all  igneous  ;  e.g., 
the  rock  of  which  the  Clochoderick  Stone  consists,  is  different  from  the  rock 
in  its  immediate  neighbourhood,  but  is  the  same  as  that  not  a  mile 
distant — which  points  to  this,  that  though  all  the  rocks  hereabout  have 
had  a  similar  origin,  though  they  are  the  result  of  a  similar  agency,  they 
may  have  been  erupted  at  dift'ereiit  times,  and  have  perhaps  been  poured 
out  from  different  "  necks"  or  vents.  This  remarkable  Stone,  thought  by 
some  to  have  been  set  up  by  the  Druids,  and  by  others  to  have  been 
carried  hither  by  a  glacier,  is  now  believed  to  be  the  top  of  a  buried  lava 
cone  rising  through  lavas  of  a  different  kind. 

One    would  of  course  expect  that    molten    rock    would   produce  a 


BOUNDARIES   AND   GEOLOGICAL    KECOKD.  & 

surface  plain  and  flat,  or  at  least  only  slightly  ridged,  an  appearance,  in 
sliort,  very  difterent  from  the  abrupt  clifts  and  large  undulations  which 
pi-evail  in  the  igneous  area.  We  have  to  remember  however  that  since 
these  solid  beds  of  lava  were  laid  down,  various  influences  have  been  at 
work,  all  tending  to  modify  and  change  the  original  shape  and  form  of  the 
surface,  e.g.,  parts  of  the  earth's  surface  which  were  once  smooth  have 
now  become  wrinkled  and  creased  owing  to  shrinkage  beneath  the  surface, 
just  as  the  skin  of  a  once  smooth  ajDple  shows  creases  after  it  has  been 
left  to  wizen.  The  rocks  of  this  region  are  known  generically  as  porpliyrite, 
melaphyre,  cindesite.  If  we  examine  some  pieces  newly  liroken  and  so 
showing  a  clean  surface,  we  discover  that  the  rock  consists  of  minute 
crystals  embedded  in  a  kind  of  cement. 

Here  and  there  through  this  area  may  be  found  scoricc  or  volcanic 
ash,  otherise  called  tu/f.  It  may  be  looked  for  on  the  hillside  immediately 
to  the  North  of  Drygate  Farm,  and  extending  in  a  bow-shaped  strip 
from  Kibblestone  to  Crossflat,  and  also  to  the  West  of  Burntshields 
towards  Marshall  Moor  ;  it  occurs  also  in  several  other  nooks  or  pockets 
throughout  the  parish.  This  is  a  softer  and  more  porous  ruck,  and  con- 
sists of  the  fine  grains  of  lava  shot  into  the  air  during  volcanic  eruptions  ; 
falling  to  the  earth  in  showers,  the  ash  once  covered  the  whole  surface  of 
the  ground.  The  grains  have  not  always  remained  in  a  loose  state  like 
gravel  or  sand,  but  have  sometimes  become  indurated  or  hardened  into 
rock,  in  some  cases  by  an  admixture  of  some  sort  of  sandy  material. 

The  rocks  to  which  we  have  referred  ai-e  the  product  of  volcanoes 
acting  in  the  open  air,  and  are  called  eruiitirc. 

Besides  the  eruptive  rocks  there  are  also  to  be  found  in  the  parish 
igneous  rocks  known  as  intru.'iirc.  From  the  back  of  the  Barholra 
extending  northwards,  and  again  on  the  old  road  to  Johnstone,  are 
two  great  masses  of  basalt  rock  occurring  in  tlie  lower  ground,  and 
rendering  it  distinctly  high.  They  owe  their  origin  to  the  intrusion 
of  lava  flows.  A  long  narrow  dyke  of  the  same  origin  and  kind  is  found 
extending  from  Riverees  to  Inkerman,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  in  length. 
The  lava  in  this  case  welled  forth  from  the  interior  of  the  earth  thrciugh 
some  fissure  or  crack  in  the  crust.  These  intrusions  of  lava  tok  place 
after  the  limestone,  the  sandstone,  and  the  coal  in  the  locality  had  already 
been  laid  down  ;  possibly  the  outpouring  took  place  on  the  ocean  floor, 
creating  islands,  or  at  least  raising  the  bottom  and  shallowing  the  sea. 
At  the  old  quarries  at  Springgrove  and  on  the  Barr  Hill,  the  basalt  or 
whin  is  found  to  overlie  the  sandstone  and  coal.  This  overlying  whin  is. 
intrusive  lava  of  more  recent  date  than  the  carboniferous  strata. 


«  KILBARCHAN. 

The  rocks  in  the  lower  part  of  the  parish — to  tlie  East  of  the  line 
already  indicated — are  known  as  sedimentary  ;  they  owe  their  origin  to 
the  presence  of  water,  to  the  existence  in  fact  of  an  old  ocean,  an  arm  of 
which  once  occupied  this  locality.  The  sandstone  which  may  be  found  here 
is  the  sand  of  its  bed  solidified  and  hardened,  partly  by  the  presence  of 
some  connecting  cement  and  partly  by  the  pressure  of  superincumbent 
matter.  The  limestone  is  the  product  of  the  shells  of  pelagic  creatures 
which  lived  in  its  waters.  The  coal  and  shale  are  the  remains  of  old 
forests  of  moss-like  trees  which  once  grew  on  its  shores.  That  part  of 
the  sea  which  occupied  the  lower  part  of  Kilb  arch  an  Parish  seems  to  have 
been  subject  to  many  and  various  currents  ;  a  bore  shows  that  sometimes 
a  great  number  of  layers  of  varying  and  alternating  materials  succeed 
each  other  in  the  course  of  a  few  fathoms.  This  points  to  the  fact  that 
the  influence  at  work  to  produce  one  layer  was  soon  succeeded  by  a 
different  influence  or  current  depositing  a  different  layer.  Take,  e.g.,  a 
bore  at  Linwood,  of  which  the  record  is  as  follows  : — 


Fm3. 

Ft. 

Id. 

Boulder  clay, 

5 

0 

0 

Sandstone, 

4 

0 

0 

Darkblaes, 

0 

r. 

] 

Black  fakes, 

0 

2 

1 

Black  fakes  and  coal, 

0 

0 

10 

Dark  fakes. 

0 

0 

6 

Soft  brown  sandstone. 

0 

2 

10 

Grey  fakes  and  coal. 

0 

0 

10 

Grey  fakes. 

0 

(t 

6 

White  sandstone,     ... 

1 

2 

5 

If  sigiUaria  or  other  plants  of  the  coal  periotl  ever  grew  in  Kilbar- 
chan,  much  of  the  coal  deposits  appears  to  have  been  washed  away  to 
other  places,  or  perhaps  the  coal  found  in  Kilbarchan  originated  elsewhere 
and  was  carried  hither  by  ocean  or  other  currents. 

The  sandstone,  the  limestone,  the  ironstone,  the  co;il,  and  the  shale, 
the  deposits  of  this  ancient  ocean,  have  all  been  from  time  to  time 
wrought  in  the  parish. 

Records  of  the  Ice  Age — or  to  speak  more  pi'Operly,  of  the  Ice 
Ages — are  abundant  in  Kilbarchan.  It  appeals  that  on  several  occa- 
sions an  Arctic  climate  prevailed  in  this  country — one  ice  age  being 
separated  from  another  ice  age  by  a  period  of  temperate  or  tropical 
climate.  The  glacier  or  ice  river,  which  can  exist  only  in  a  climate 
nearly    Arctic    or    Alpine,     produced    results    of    surpassing    magnitude 


BOUNDARIES   AND  GEOLOGICAL   RECORD.  T 

on  the  surface  of  the  country.  Many  of  the  features  of  the  Kilbarchan 
landscapes  are  due  to  a  glacier  which  flowed  from  North  to  South,  from 
Argyllshire  into  Rentrewshire,  across  what  is  now  the  Clyde  Valley. 
Somewhere  near  Duchal  this  glacier,  or  at  least  a  branch  of  it,  turned 
Eastwards,  so  that  as  it  passed  through  Kilbarchan  its  course  was  from 
West  to  East.  Certain  groovings  or  scratchings  to  be  seen  on  the  rocks 
about  Barniufilock,  above  Locher  Print  Field,  near  Glentyan,  and  at 
various  other  points — the  generally  smoothed  and  rounded  forms  of  the 
hill  tops  and  exposed  rocks  on  the  higher  ground — the  mounds  and  layers 
of  till  (clay  containing  ice  worn  boulders)  to  be  found  in  the  upper,  but 
especially  in  the  lower  part  of  the  Parish,  are  unmistakeable  evidences  of 
glacier  action.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  loose  material  between  the 
surface  of  the  ground  and  the  rock  beneath,  is  due  to  the  influence  of  ice 
rivers.  They  were  not  rapid  in  their  flow — never  exceeding  twenty  feet 
per  day,  and  sometimes  even  less  than  two  feet — but  they  did  an  enor- 
mous work,  in  grinding  into  the  finest  powder  the  rocky  bed  and  sides  of 
their  channels — in  carrying  with  them  great  quantities  of  clay,  sand, 
gravel,  stones^n  transporting  to  great  distances  large  masses  of  rock — ■ 
and  then,  especially  at  the  point  where  they  melted,  in  piling  up  great 
heaps  of  till.  This  glacier  refuse  or  till  is  most  in  evidence  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  Parish,  because  there  the  ice  melted  (perhaps  on 
meeting  the  temperate  waters  of  the  sea)  and  deposited  its  burden 
of  stones,  etc.  Borings  at  Blackston,  Middleton,  Selvieland,  and  Linwood 
show  from  fourteen  to  twenty  fathoms  of  mud,  sandy  clays,  brown  clays, 
blue  clays,  and  till,  which  are  mostly  due  to  glacier  action.  The  low  hills 
about  Kaimhill,  the  eminence  on  which  Merchiston  stands,  and  the  rising 
ground  at  Kilbarchan  Cemetery,  are,  generally  speaking,  composed  of  till 
or  glacier  deposit.  Besides  the  great  glacier,  some  branch  or  local  glaciers 
also  have  left  behind  them  traces  of  their  action  ;  the  dell  above  Todholes 
to  the  left  of  Haiilaw,  the  little  vale  in  which  Kilbai-chan  Burn  flows  and 
in  which,  viewed  from  Cochrane  Castle  Golf  Links,  the  main  street  of  Kil- 
barchan seems  so  cosily  to  nestle,  have  all  the  appearance  of  liavlng  been 
beds  of  ice  rivers. 

The  valley  wbicli  bounds  Kilbarchan  Parish  on  the  South-East, 
and  in  which  the  Black  Cart  flows,  has  been  made  a  subject  of  some 
interest  by  the  attention  directed  to  it  by  Dr.  Thomas  Geikie  in  his  book, 
Tlie  Great  Ice  Age.  It  seems  that  at  one  time  it  was  occupied  by  a  river 
flowing  in  the  direction  opposite  to  that  in  which  the  Black  Cart  now 
flows.      The  facts  and  arguments  by  which  the  author  establishes  this  are 


8  KILBAKCHAN. 

too  niiinei'ous  and  elaboi-ate  to  be  done  anything  like  justice  to  in  this 
place.  This  much,  however,  may  be  mentioned  ;  during  one  of  the  glacial 
periods  the  Clyde  flowed  at  a  lower  level  than  that  at  which  it  now  flows, 
and  the  Scottish  shore  stretched  further  out  to  sea  than  at  present  ;  a 
glacier  then  filled  the  depression  now  marked  by  Loch  Lomond  and  the 
Vale  of  Leven,  crossed  the  valley  of  the  Clyde,  and  abutted  on  the 
opposite  slope  of  the  Kilbarchan  hills.  This  glacier,  at  least  at  certain 
periods,  dammed  back  the  waters  of  the  Clyde,  which  therefore  formed  a 
lake,  the  shores  of  which  were  tlie  high  grounds  of  Kilpatrick,  Kilbar- 
chan, and  Paisley.  The  mud,  evidently  a  lacustrine  deposit,  to  be  found 
in  borings  made  in  the  lower  part  of  Kilbarchan  is  corroborative  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  this  lake.  The  waters  of  the  Clyde,  after  filling  up 
this  basin,  overflowed  and  found  a  way  of  escape  in  a  direction  generally 
South  Westerly,  by  the  valley  now  occupied  by  the  channel  of  the  Black 
Cart  and  by  the  lochs  of  Castle  Semple  and  Kilbirnie,  until  it  fell  into 
the  sea  somewhere  South  of  Ardrossan.''  This  glacier  probably  belonged 
to  a  period  antecedent  to  the  glacier  referred  to  on  the  preceding  page. 

Tt  has  already  been  remarked  that  hills  are  sometimes  the  result 
of  the  wrinkling  or  creasing  of  the  earth's  surface  owing  to  the  con- 
traction of  its  interior.  Similar  earth  movements  have  cau.sed  also 
cracks  or  fissures.  It  seems  that  in  obedience  to  .some  stress,  the 
layers  of  rock  composing  the  earth's  crust  have  been  at  some  places 
broken  vertically,  and  the  broken  edges,  after  moving  relatively  to  each 
other,  have  come  together  again,  but  not  exactly  as  they  were  before 
the  fissure  took  place.  The  strata  are  no  longer  continuous  but  are  dis- 
located. The  consequence  is  that  a  miner,  in  following  the  course  of 
some  stratum  of  limestone  or  seam  of  coal,  comes  suddenly  to  a  halt, 
with  a  wall  of  difierent  rock  before  him,  and  has  to  prospect  for  his  layer 
of  workable  material  up  nearer  the  surface  or  lower  down  than  his  old  level. 
These  dislocations,  or  faults,  or  ti-ouhles  are  so  connnon  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  Parish  as  almost  to  form  a  network.  In  the  higher  ground  there 
is  also  a  fault  lying  almost  due  East  and  West,  and  extending  from 
Locher  Mill  to  Auchencloich.  For  some  distance,  from  Locher  Printfield 
to  near  Hairlaw,  the  course  of  the  stream  "  Locher  "  coincides  with  it.  Tlie 
dip  of  strata  is  also  largely  due  to  earth-movements.  Most  of  the  rocks 
laid  down  horizontally  are  now  frequently  seen  to  be  inclined  or  bent  from 
their  horizontal  position,  and  sometimes  have  been  so  tilted  that  they  are 

'  Great  Ice  Age,  p.  14G  and  foil. 


BOUNDARIES  AND   GEOLOGICAL  RECORD.  9 

now  vertical,  or  even  completely  turned  over,  or  doubled  up  upon  themselves. 
This  is  the  consequence  of  a  variety  of  stresses  and  forces.  Examples  of 
tilting,  thouf^li  not  to  any  great  extent,  are  conmion  in  Kilbarchan. 

Immediately  to  the  East  of  West  Fulton  Farm  the  geological 
map  indicates  "  an  older  teiTace  of  marine  erosion  " — in  other  words,  a 
place  where  the  loose  overlying  material  has  been  carried  away  by  the 
action  of  the  sea.  It  is  necessary  to  explain  that  sea  and  land  did  not 
always  stand  at  the  same  relative  elevation  towards  each  other  in  which 
they  do  now.  There  is  evidence  that  at  one  time  the  sea  stood  consider- 
ably higher,  relatively  to  the  land,  than  it  is  at  present.  The  land  surface, 
however,  gradually  rose  and  the  sea  correspondingly  fell  and  retreated, 
until  the  water  reached  a  level  only  50  feet  higher  than  now  ;  at  this 
height  it  remained  for  some  time,  forming  new  beaches.  And  at  yet 
another  period  the  sea  was  25  feet  higher  than  at  present.  This  may 
have  been  its  level  within  times  very  recent,  i.e.,  recent  according  to 
geologists'  notions  of  time,  say  about  the  time  of  the  Roman  invasion, 
1830  years  ago.  The  retiral  of  the  sea  was  thus  made  in  three  steps  or 
stages — from  the  highest  level  to  50  feet,  from  50  feet  to  25  feet,  and 
from  25  feet  to  the  present  sea  level.  At  each  of  these  resting  places 
the  sea  had  its  beach  or  strand,  and  the  geologist's  eye  can  with 
certainty  detect  these  old  shores.  The  terrace  at  West  Fulton  is  one 
of  these  beaches.  The  waves  of  the  sea  have  at  this  point  washed  away 
the  debris  which  the  glacier  had  deposited,  leaving  bare  the  coal  and 
rocks  laid  down  by  the  primeval  sea.  A  bore  made  at  West  Fulton 
shows  no  boulder  clay  or  till,  but  immediately  beneath  a  few  inches  of 
loam  there  come  : — 

Feet.    Inches. 

Coal,  ...  ...  ...         4         3 

Fire  clay,   ...  ...  ...         4         \\ 

White  lime,  ...  ...         1         0 

and  so  on. 

Fresh  water  alluvium  or  peat  occurs  here  and  tliere  throughout 
the  parish,  but  chiefly  at  Linwood  Moss.  The  account  given  of  the 
origin  of  this  "moss"  by  the  Rev.  Patrick  Maxwell,  Minister  of  Kil- 
barchan (1787-1806),  in  the  Old  Statistical  Account  (1795),  has  been 
rendered  almost  classical  by  being  quoted  by  Dr.  Robert  Munro  in  his 
recent  volume.  Prehistoric  Scotland  : — 

"  ■     •     .     500  acres  are  occupied  by  a  moss  from  seven  to  nine  feet  in  depth.     .     . 
The  soil  below  is  a  deep  white  clay,  where  has  formerly  been  a  forest.     The  oak  is  per- 
fectly fresh  ;  the  other  kinds  of  timber  are  rotten.     The  stumps  in  general  are  standing  in 


10  KILBARCHAN. 

their  original  position.  The  trees  are  all  broken  over  at  about  the  height  of  three  feet,  and 
are  lying  from  S.W.  to  N.E.  So  whenever  you  see  a  stump,  you  are  sure  to  find  a  tree  to 
the  N.E.  How  an  oak  tree  could  break  over  at  that  particular  place,  I  could  never  under- 
stand. But  we  may  be  allowed  to  form  a  conjecture,  that  before  the  tree  fell,  the  moss 
had  advanced  along  its  stem,  and  rotted  it  there.  Wood  immersed  in  a  wet  body  is  found 
to  decay  first  at  the  ring  between  the  wet  and  the  dry.  The  theory  of  mosses  is  now 
illustrated  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  They  have  all  been  woods  at  a  former  period.  These 
being  cut  or  falling  down  hindered  the  water  from  getting  off  the  ground  where  they  lay. 
This  encouraged  the  moss  plants  to  grow  over  them.  These  plants,  while  rotting  below, 
continue  to  grow  above.  Hence  a  moss  continually  increases  in  depth.  The  position  of 
the  trees  in  most  mosses  from  S.W.  to  N.E.,  instead  of  being  an  objection,  confirms  this 
hypothesis  ;  for  all  our  trees  are  bent  in  this  direction,  by  the  prevailing  current  of  our 
winds.  A  tree,  whether  cut  down  or  decaying,  naturally  falls  in  a  direction  to  which  it 
leaned  while  growing.  The  Romans  produced  many  mosses  by  cutting  down  the  woods,  to 
which  our  ancestors  fled  for  shelter.  Others  have  doubtless  been  produced  from  woods 
allowed  to  fall  through  decay.  From  what  has  been  observed  of  the  quick  growth  of  moss, 
it  should  seem  that  this  one  is  not  very  ancient.  What  confirms  this  opinion  is,  that  many 
places  round  this,  and  other  mosses  in  this  country,  still  retain  the  name  of  wood.  As 
Fulwood,  Linwood,  Birchenhead,  Woodhead,  Woodside,  Oak-shaw-head  {shaio  is  '  wood '), 
Walkinshaw,  etc." 

Water  falliug  on  the  gi-ound  in  the  form  of  rain  and  snow,  and 
percolating  through  the  soil  and  softer  rocks,  has  the  power  of  separating 
out  some  of  the  chemical  materials  which  it  meets  with,  and  of  depositing 
them  in  the  form  of  crystals  in  the  interstices  of  the  rocks.  In  the 
exposed  face  of  soft  rock  to  the  right  of  the  road  from  Kilbarchan  to 
Bridge  of  Weir,  at  Pinnal  Brae,  may  be  found  beautiful  little  crystals, 
generally  white,  called  Zeolites,  which  owe  their  origin  to  the  infiltration 
of  water. 

Near  Locher  Mill  there  is  a  well,  the  waters  of  which  are  so 
strongly  impregnated  with  the  sulphate  and  carbonate  of  lime,  that  any 
object  put  into  the  water  becomes  incrusted  with  a  limey  coating,  thus 
producing  "  petrifoctions "  so-called,  but  which  may  moi-e  properly  be 
described  as  "  incrustations." 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  Saints  of  Kilbarchan. 

It  is  not  the  mere  interest  of  the  story,  nor  even  the  ideal  morality  which  constitutes  the  principal 
charm  of  the  legends  of  the  Saints ;  it  is  the  constant  idea  of  Providence  supporting  the  faithful  in  those 
troublous  times,  and  of  saints  always  interfering  in  favour  of  the  innocent. 

— M.  Ampere,  Hist.  Lilt,  de  la  France  le  12mo.  Siecle  ;  ii.  369. 

Explanation  of  KILBARCHAN — How  a  church  was  founded — Many  Saints  with  names 
similar  to  Barchan — How  our  Barchan  may  be  identified — Citation  of  calendars — 
Drummond  calendar — Martyrology  of  Donegal — Felire  of  ffingus — Gorman's  Martyrology — 
Conflicting  views — Bishop  Forbes — Martyrology  of  Tallagh — Camerarius — Opinions  of 
Cosmo  Innes,  Dr.  Reeves,  etc. — Possible  meaning  of  "Barchan" — Pedigree  of  Bearchan 
— "The  man  of  two  parts" — Prophetic  fragments — Felire  of  CEiigus  quoted — His  church, 
cairn,  and  well  at  Clonsast— O'Donovan  at  Clonsast  in  1837 — Clonsast  in  1900 — Colgan's 
Birchanus — "Church  of  the  Four  Illustrious  " — Ara's  Isle — Archbishop  Ussher  quoted — 
When  did  Barchan  live  ? — His  fame  as  a  prophet — His  cryptic  prophecies — History  as 
prophecy — What  it  is  possible  that  Barchan  did  write. — St.  Mary,  the  Virgin — Her  altar 
in  KIL-barchan — St.  Catharine's  Chapel — The  Saint's  festival — Probable  reason  for  this 
Saint  being  chosen — Her  learning — Missionary  success — Persecution  and  death — Popularity 
in  Europe — Patroness  of  schools — Monastery  on  Mount  Sinai  visited  by  Kilbarchan  ladies — 
Other  St.  Catharines— St.  Bridget — Birth  and  early  consecration — Miracles— Connection 
with  St.  Patrick — Her  death — St.  Marxock — Possible  connection  with  Kilbarchan — His 
fame — A  Relic  and  its  uses — Places  where  his  memory  was  celebrated. 

I.  Barchan — Saint,  Bishop,  and  Prophet. 

This  chapter  is  an  attempt  to  answer  the  vexed  question — "  Who  was 
St.  Barchan  ? "  Treating  in  the  meantime  probahihties,  and  even  possi- 
biUties  as  certainties,  we  are  able  to  answer  that  he  was  a  Scoto-Irish 
Saint  who  Hved  between  550  and  650  ;  that  he  pursued  his  clerical  calling 
both  in  Ireland  and  in  Scotland;  that  both  at  Clonsast,  King's  County,  and 
at  Kilbarchan,  where  he  spent  part  of  his  life,  his  memory  was  formerly 
reverenced  on  an  early  date  in  December  ;  that  in  his  old  age,  being 
stricken  with  blindness,  he  received  as  a  compensation  from  heaven  the 
gift  of  prophecy  ;  and  that  on  his  death,  his  body  was  borne  to  Inishmore, 
Galway  Bay,  where  he  was  buried  in  the  same  gi'ave  as  other  three  saints, 
and  the  church  near  became  thereafter  known  as  the  "  Church  of  the 
Four  Illustrious." 


12  KILBAECHAN. 

The  name  "  KWhavchan"  (Kyi  berhan,  Kilherchan,  etc.)  means  "the 
Church,  Cell,  or  Eefcreat  of  Barchan "  :  those  who  countenance  the  ex- 
planation, "  Church  of  the  hill  bounded  vale,"  not  only  accept  a  more 
than  doubtful  etymology,  but  are  also  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  all  vales 
are  hill  bounded.'  Recent  investigations  into  the  usages  of  the  early- 
British  Church  make  it  probable  that  a  holy  man,  whose  nime  was  some- 
thing like  "  Barchan,"  actually  lived  for  some  time  at  the  place  which  has 
ever  since  his  visit  borne  his  name.  The  purely  formal  dedication  of 
churches  to  illustrious  saints  who  had  never  visited  them,  or  the  localities 
where  they  were  erected,  was  a  Continental  practice  unknown  in  the 
native    church   during    its    period    of   isolation.^ 

"  It  was  customary,"  says  Borlase,  "  that  when  any  holy  man.  were  he  bishop  or 
priest,  wished  to  found  a  church  or  a  monastery  to  be  devoted  to  the  service  of  God,  he 
should  come  himself  to  the  spot  on  which  the  future  edifice  was  to  be  raised,  and  there 
continue  forty  days  engaged  in  prayer  and  fasting.  During  this  period  it  was  incumbent 
on  him  to  allow  himself  each  day  until  the  evening  (Sundays  excepted)  nothing  but  a 
morsel  of  bread  and  a  hen's  egg,  taken  with  a  little  milk  and  water.  This  done,  the  cere- 
mony was  completed,  and  all  that  was  required  by  way  of  consecration  was  effected. 
'  It  would  naturally  follow,'  says  Mr.  Rees,  that  the  church  should  henceforth  be  called  by 
the  name  of  the  person  thus  dwelling  on  the  spot,  '  and  in  this  sense,  and  no  other,  the  word 
founder  is  to  be  understood.'  '  The  place  was  called  after  him,  as  a  house  is  often  called  by 
the  name  of  its  builder.  It  remained  for  subsequent  generations  to  regard  the  founder  in 
the  character  of  patron,'  and  to  give  him  the  informal  title  of  Saint,  which  has  proved 
quite  as  lasting  as  a  place  in  the  Calendar,  backed  by  a  formal  canonisation.  On  arriving 
in  a  new  country  .  .  .  the  wanderer  would  settle  down  to  his  task — sometimes 
attaching  himself  to  the  retinue  of  a  tribal  chieftain  or  noble,  and  inducing  him  and  his 
followers  to  become  Christians  and  to  erect  a  church — sometimes  raising  for  himself  his 
lonely  hermit's  cell  ...  in  a  sheltered  valley  near  some  stone  or  fountain,  of  whose 
spell  he  now  would  become  the  interpreter,  and  whose  blessings  he  would  now  dispense  in 
the  name,  no  longer  of  the  genius  loci,  but  of  Christ."  ^ 

This  very  clear  statement  by  a  recognised  authority  makes  it 
possible    for    us    to    maintain     that    the    celebrated    prophet    and    saint 

'  The  temptation  to  try  to  establish  some  connection  between  the  place  name  of  "Barochan" 
in  Killallan,  with  its  interesting  old  Celtic  Cross,  and  St.  Barchan  of  Kilbarchan,  is  one  difficult  to 
set  aside.  The  extra  vowel  affected  by  our  neighbours  dues  not  present  an  insuperable  obstacle — 
but  it  is  difficult  to  find  a  valid  reason  for  the  Saint's  erecting  or  blessing  a  cross  three  miles,  and 
no  more,  from  his  own  "retreat,"  and  the  idea  that  Barchan  invaded  the  district  where  a  brother 
saint  was  labouring,  or  where  his  memory  had  come  to  be  revered,  is  so  strongly  suggestive  of  a 
grave  breach  of  modern  clerical  etiquette  that  it  would  be  unbecoming  in  us  to  encourage  it  ! 

'  This  did  net  end  in  Scotland  until  the  reformation  set  on  foot  by  Queen  Margaret  took 
effect,  about  the  end  of  the  11th  century. 

'Age  of  the  SainU,  pp.  85,  86.  See  also  Warreiis  Celtic  Church,  pp.  74,  75;  and  Stokes' 
S.  Patrick,  pp.  230,  231. 


THE   SAINTS   OF    KILBARCHAN.  15 

with  whom  we  will  attempt  to  identify  "  Barchan "  made  Kilbarchan 
his  home  for  at  least  the  necessary  forty  days,  and  that  his  "  cell "  stood 
near  the  site  of  the  present  Parish  Church. 

In  vain  shall  we  search  the  writings  of  hagiologists  to  find  any 
saint  whose  name  was  exactly  Barchan.  There  may  be  found,  how- 
ever, nearly  a  dozen  Berchans,  half  a  dozen  Brecans,  two  Berachs,  a 
Brychan,  a  Brogan,  and  so  on,  any  one  of  which  may  have  supplied  the 
syllables  corrupted  into  "  Barchan."  Uniformity  in  spelling  is  quite  a 
modern  criterion  of  identity.  It  is  only  by  an  appeal  to  old  Church 
Calendars  that  we  are  delivered  from  the  mazes  of  perplexity  in  which 
otherwise  we  might  helplessly  wander.  A  Church  Calendar  registers 
the  natal  days  of  the  Saints,  i.e.,  the  days  on  which  they  died.  It 
in  short  allocates  stated  days  to  the  commemoration  of  certain  holy 
men  and  women.  On  the  day  of  a  particular  saint  the  chief  facts 
of  his  life  are  read  in  church  or  in  private,  and  the  faithful  by  giving 
attention  thereto  are  expected  to  correct  their  aspirations  and  to  model 
their  lives  on  what  is  thus  recalled  to  their  memories  ;  and  in  the  district 
surrounding  the  church  that  bears  the  saint's  name,  his  day  is  held 
in  especial  veneration — the  method  of  celebration  varying  from  age  to  age. 

According  to  the  Drummond  Calendar,  the  4th  December  was  the  day 
set  apart  to  commemorate  the  Holy  Confessor  Firdalethi  or  Berchain  ; 
another  calendar — The  Martyrology  of  Donegal — mentions  under  the 
same  date  Bearchin  of  Cluain-sosta,  Bishop  and  Apostle  of  God.  So 
also  the  Felire  of  (Engus  and  the  Martyrologij  of  Gorman  ;  and  O'Dono- 
van,  in  a  letter  hitherto  unpublished,  while  admitting  that  it  was  on  St. 
John's  Day,  and  St.  Peter's,  and  St.  Paul's  [June  24th  and  29th]  that  the 
pattern  at  Clonsast  was  held  within  living  memory,  yet  says  distinctly 
that  "  the  Saint's  memory  was  annually  celebrated  with  great  devotion  at 
his  well  on  the  3rd  of  December."  Now  the  Kilbarchan  Fair  known 
as  Barchan's  day  is  held  on  the  first  Tuesday  after  the  12th  of 
December,  i.e.,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  December  O.S.,  or  roughly  speak- 
ing, on  the  third  day  of  the  first  week  of  December  ;  which  brings  us  to 
O'Donovan's  conjectured  Brachan's  Day,  and  within  one  day  of  the 
Berchan's  Day  of  the  Drummond  Calendar,  of  the  Martyrology  of 
Donegal,  of  CEngus,  and  of  Gorman. 

It  is  as  unnecessary  as  it  would  be  tedious  to  trace  the  steps 
by  which  Holy  Days  lost  their  religious  complexion  and  became  de- 
voted to  the  mundane  purposes  of  buying  and  selling,  became,  in  short, 
holidays,  days   on    which  people  had  an  enjoyable    outing — and    how    a 


14  KILBARCHAN. 

certain  day  of  the  week  as  an  anniversary  or  date  was  substituted 
for  the  older  day  of  the  month.  These  changes  were  indeed  natural  and 
inevitable — the  former  in  a  world  which  grows  daily  more  utilitarian,  the 
latter  under  the  influence  of  a  Church  which  for  many  a  day  regarded  the 
Lord's  Day  as  the  only  traditional  religious  institution  worth  defending 
against  profanation.  In  the  year  1602  Lochwinnoch  Fair  fell  on  a  Sunday. 
The  Presbytery  of  Paisley  enacted  that  it  should  be  held  on  the  preceding 
Saturday.  Probably  recourse  was  had  soon  after  to  the  new  way  of 
reckoning  anniversaries  by  days  of  the  week. 

But  though  several  of  the  best  authorities  agree  in  making  St. 
Barchan's  Day  fall  on  December  4,  and  though  the  identification  of 
Barchan  of  Kilbarchan  and  Bearchan  of  Clonsast  seems  to  hinge  on  such  a 
consensus,  yet  it  would  be  disingenuous  to  suppress  the  information  that 
authorities  as  reliable  as  those  quoted,  favour  other  dates.  Thus,  though 
the  Martyrology  of  Gorman  mentions  Berchan  "  the  dear  prophet  "  under 
December  4,  yet  at  August  4  notice  is  taken  of  "  the  blooming  Berchan  " 
— flattering  epithets  "  which,"  Dr.  Bernard  of  Dublin  i-emarks,  "  are 
probably  due  to  the  exigencies  of  metre." 

Bishop  Forbes  gives  an  account  of  Berchan  at  August  4,  and  quotes 
an  old  charter  [10th  January,  1578]  conferring  certain  rights  on  the 
Burgh  of  Tain,  amongst  them  the  right  to  "  hold  a  fair  on  the  day  of  St. 
Barquhan,  wliich  is  the  third  day  after  the  festival  of  St.  Peter  ad 
vincula  called  Lammas  [August  1st]." 

Canon  O'Hanlon  mentions  Berchan  of  Clonsast  at  August  4,  quoting 
the  Martyrology  of  Tallagh.  He  says: — "There  is  a  traditional  account  of 
a  saint,  said  to  have  been  a  cripple,  who,  while  carried  about  in  a  sort  of 
wheelbarrow  lost  his  life  through  an  accident,  at  a  place  now  known  as 
Tubberbarry,  near  Summer  Hill,  Co.  Meath.  Where  he  was  killed,  a  well 
of  pure  bubbling  water  sprung  up,  and  it  was  surrounded  by  trees.  My 
informant  has  told  me  that,  on  the  4th  of  August,  each  year,  pilgrimages 
are  made  to  this  fountain  by  the  country  people,  who  have  great  faith  in 
its  curative  properties.  Perhaps  the  Saint's  name  was  Barry  or  Bearach  ; 
but,  there  may  be  a  greater  difficulty  still,  in  identifying  him  with  the 
present  St.  Berchan."  Canon  O'Hanlon  has,  however,  given  me  to  under- 
stand that  St.  Berchan  will  be  noticed  under  December  4th  also,  when 
his  great  work  on  the  Irish  Saints  reaches  that  point,  and  that 
the  forthcoming  article  will  have  as  an  illustration  the  old  Church  of 
Kilbarchan. 

At  April  6th,  David  Chalmers  (Camerarius)  notices  a  St.  Berchan  or 


THE   SAINTS    OF   KILBARCHAN.  15 

St.  Berthan,  Bishop  of  the  Orkneys  and  Confessor,  who  spent  his  youth  in 
the  celebrated  monastery  of  St.  Columba  {i.e.,  Inchmahome),  not  far  from 
Stirhng,  and  who  was  held  in  higli  repute  in  the  province  of  Stirhng. 

Such  discrepancies  of  date  indicate,  either  that  different  saints  of  the 
same  or  similar  names  have  inadvertently  come  under  our  purview,  or  that 
the  calendarists  were  far  from  being  agreed  as  to  St.  Barchan's  date. 
The  question  as  to  "  "Who  was  Barchan?"  seems  indeed  to  defy  final  settle- 
ment, for  although  Cosmo  Innes  in  his  Origines  Farochiales  expresses  the 
opinion  that  the  Kilbarchan  Fair  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  December,  O.S., 
is  a  survival  of  St.  Barchan's  Day,  and  Dr.  Reeves  in  h\s  AdanDian  identi- 
fies Berchan  of  Clonsast  v^^ith  the  patron  saint  of  Kilbai-chan  ;  yet  one 
of  the  best  living  authorities  says  that  he  cannot  think  that  the  Fair  has 
anything  to  do  with  the  Saint,  for  reasons,  however,  which  do  not 
appear  to  me  to  be  quite  satisfactory. 

In  the  earlier  centuries  names  were  often  significant  and  descriptive 
as  only  nick-names  can  claim  to  be  now;  and  if  "Berchan"  is  the  diminutive 
form  of  the  Erse  word  BRT  =  a  spear,  it  will  signify  "a  little  spear."  This 
appellation  may  have  described  the  Saint's  person,  and  we  may  think  of 
him  as  a  spare  man  of  short  stature,  or  it  may  have  described  his  manner 
and  speech,  which  may  have  been  keen  and  incisive. 

The  fullest  original  account  of  him  whom  we  take  to  be  our  patron  is 
that  to  be  found  in  The  Martyrology  of  Donegal.     It  is  as  follows  : — 

Dec.  4. — Bearchan,  Bishop  and  Apostle  of  God,  of  Cluain-sosta  in  Uifailghe 
[Clonsast  or  Cloonsost  in  Offaly  or  Ophaly,  King's  County].  He  was  of 
the  race  of  Cairhe  Righfoda,  son  of  Conaire,  who  is  of  the  seed  of  Heremon. 
Fer  da  Leithe  was  another  name  for  him,  i.e.,  he  spent  half  his  life  in  Alba 
and  the  other  half  in  Erin,  as  he  himself  said  :— 

At  first  we  were  in  Alba, 

The  next  first  in  Meath  ; 

Truly  it  was  not  foolish  sleep  that  I  went  bent  on, 

I  did  not  find  the  face  of  a  hero  by  sleeping. 
The  four  prophets  of  the  fine  Gaels, 

Better  of  it  the  county  whence  they  came, 

Columcille,  Moling  the  perfect, 

Brenainn  of  Biorr  and  Berchin. 

The  second  quatrain  is  added  in  a  more  recent  hand.  There  is  a  long  clear 
prophecy  of  Berchan  (which  Richard  o'  Murchertaigh  had)  on  this  captivity 
of  Erinn  in  which  this  is  the  last  stanza : — 

Where  a  twig  falls  a  tree  grows  up  ; 

Who  drops  a  nut  plants  a  new  tree  ; 

The  eighth  citizen  prince  of  Rome  [Pope  Urban  viii.] 

Shall  release  Erinn  from  the  bondage  of  the  foreign  tribe. 


16  KILBARCHAN. 

The  tub  of  Berchain  {sc.  forming  the  bason  for  the  well)  was  found  new  in 
Ui  Failge,  in  the  territory  of  Ui  Berchain.  The  timber  was  still  round  the 
water  {i.e.,  its  timber  was  still  sound  enough  to  hold  water).  It  is  there 
Clonsast  is,  and  it  is  there  is  Tempull  Berchain  and  was. 

The  Felire  of  Q^ngus  at  December  4  has  the  following  : — 

....  one  of  our  sages  was  the  modest  Fer-da-leithe  ("  man  of  two  parts  "), 
i.e.,  Berchan  of  Clonsost  in  Offaly.  Or  "  man  of  two  parts  "  in  Laid  Treoit 
[Menteith  ?]  in  Scotland:  a  priest  was  he.  "Man  of  two  parts,"  i.e.,  half 
of  his  life  in  the  world  and  the  other  half  in  pilgrimage,  ut  feruni  (periti). 
Half  his  life  in  Ireland  and  the  other  half  in  Scotland. 

The  celebrated  Irish  antiquary  O'Douovan  visited  Clonsast  in  1837. 
His  account  of  the  antiquities  of  the  place  is  to  be  found  in  his  MS.  letters 
lying  in  the  library  of  the  Royal  Irisli  Academy,  from  which  the  following 
excerpt  has  been  taken  by  the  kind  permission  of  the  authorities  : — 

PoRTARLiNGTON,  December  22,  1S37. 

Dear  Sir, 

We  have  discovered  the  establishment  of  an  early  saint  of  whose  history  I 
remember  nothing.  It  is  called  Clonsast,  and  lies  about  five  miles  north-east  of  Portarling- 
ton  in  a  beautiful  Cluain  which  is  surrounded  by  a  part  of  the  Bog  of  Allen.  The  Irish 
name  is  CLUAINSOSTA  and  the  Patron  is  vividly  remembered  to  be  St.  Bra(o  ?)chan 
(perhaps  a  contraction  for  Berachan),  whose  memory  was  annually  celebrated  with  great 
devotion  at  his  well,  called  Tohar-Brachain,  on  the  Third  of  December.  The  old  church  is 
small,  and  unquestionably  of  the  primitive  age,  as  appears  from  the  large  size  of  the  stones 
and  character  of  the  masonry,  but  all  the  doors  and  windows  are  unfortunately  destroyed. 
The  churchyard  presents  all  the  appearance  of  its  having  been  deserted  at  an  early  period, 
and  no  grave,  tombstone  or  inscription  of  ancient  or  modern  date  is  to  be  seen,  at  least  over 
ground,  nor  is  there  anything  to  attract  the  notice  of  the  antiquarian  but  the  primitive 
appearance  of  the  featureless  walls  and  the  melancholy  beauty  of  the  spot — secessus  quietis. 

To  the  south  east  of  the  old  church  about  twenty  perches,  and  separated  from  the  hard 
spot  by  a  brook,  now  swollen  to  a  rapid  flood,  there  is  a  remarkable  stone  in  which  the 
Saint  is  said  to  have  stamped  the  impression  of  his  head,  and  which  was  resorted  to  for  the 
purpose  of  procuring  relief  from  the  headache.  Near  the  stone  grows  a  small  hoary  thorn, 
evidently  of  great  age,  and  close  to  the  thorn  is  a  small  ccdrn  of  stones.  These  three  objects 
are  on  a  small  hillock,  which  is  now  insulated  by  so  deep  a  current  that  I  cannot  visit 
them,  though  I  made  every  effort,  for  two  reasons,  viz.,  to  get  rid  of  a  headache  and  to 
view  some  hieroglyphics  said  to  be  indented  on  the  stone,  but  the  day  was  too  cold  to 
strip. 

St.  Brachan's  AVell  lies  in  the  town  land  of  Clonshannon,  about  sixty  perches  to  the 
N.W.  (?)  of  his  church.  It  was  a  large  and  vigorous  spring  until  fifteen  years  ago,  when 
drains  were  sunk  in  the  bog  near  it,  which  have  weakened  its  vigour  and  left  its  waters 
quite  muddy  and  black.  It  is  nevertheless  never  seen  dry,  and  is  still  visited  by  a  few 
pilgrims,  who  have  left  some  devoted  rags  on  the  bushes  that  grow  over  it. 


RUINS  OF  ST.    BERCHANS   CHURCH 

Clonsad,   Khujs  County 


'ide  jxtijes  IG,  17 


s^il^.;.;,.^..^. 


THE   SAINTS   OF    KILBARCHAN.  17 

Until  a  very  late  period  a  numerous  pattern  was  held  on  the  field  adjoining  this  well 
and  church,  on  St.  John's  Day  (24th  June),  and  on  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  (29th  June) ; 
but  in  consequence  of  the  bad  effects  of  whiskey,  the  clergy  have  thought  proper  to 
abolish  it. 

This  parish  was,  according  to  tradition,  anciently  called  Farmann  Brachain,  which  is 
evidently  a  corruption  of  Tf:RMON  Brachain.  I  find  mention  made  of  a  church  called 
"  Cluainsosta  "  in  the  Calendar  of  Donegal  ;  but  it  cannot  be  this,  as  it  is  stated  to  lie  in 
the  County  of  Kildare  and  to  belong  to  a  Saint  Kieran. 

The  present  writer  visited  Clonsast  in  the  summer  of  1900,  and  had 
the  various  objects  of  interest  above-mentioned — church,  stone,  cairn, 
thorn,  and  well — pointed  out  to  him  by  Mr.  Edward  Watson,  the  pro- 
prietor of  part  of  the  townland  of  Clonshannon.  After  the  lapse  of 
nearly  sixty-three  years,  O'Donovan's  description  remains  substantially 
correct.  Since  O'Donovan's  visit,  a  vandal  farmer  sought  and  found  In 
the  ruined  walls  of  the  church  materials  for  making  a  bridge  ;  but,  super- 
naturally  warned  or  conscience-stricken,  he  soon  restored  the  stones  as 
best  he  could.  The  ruin  stands  on  a  slight  eminence.  The  ground  about 
it  is  very  rough,  suggesting  the  pi-esence  of  grave-stones  or  perhaps  owing 
to  boulders  fallen  from  the  building.  The  brook  which  interfered  with 
O'Donovan's  investigations  was  not  in  evidence.  The  cairn  (or  earn)  is 
very  low,  and  only  on  the  table-like  top  are  the  stones  exposed.  It  is 
remarked  by  the  country  people  that  the  grass  has  never  encroached  upon 
it,  though  the  ground  ivy  has  no  such  scruples.  A  natural  explanation 
of  this  has  been  oflered  ;  a  large  flat  stone  which  once  marked  the  boun- 
dary of  the  vicarage-land  has  been  for  many  years  amissing,  to  the  advan- 
tage of  a  neighbouring  lay  proprietor  but  to  the  detriment  of  the  cure, 
and  it  has  been  suggested  that  it  lies  concealed  beneath  the  cairn.  No 
efforts  have  been  made,  however,  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  this  conjecture. 
The  stone  credited  with  the  power  of  curing  headache  is  a  boulder  about 
two  feet  in  diameter  set  in  the  ground.  The  hollowed  top  might  fit  the 
back  of  some  human  heads.  The  presence  of  a  colony  of  ants,  which  had 
made  its  crevices  their  summer  quarters  and  which  refused  to  be  evicted, 
made  it  inadvisable  to  test  either  its  size  or  its  reputed  joowers,  though 
one  deemed  it  wise  to  make  a  votive  offering  to  propitiate  the  genius  loci. 
There  are  several  old  thorn  trees  near,  many  of  them  dead  and  decaying 
and  mantled  over  with  ivy.  The  once  famous  well  is  now  little  more  than 
a  hole  in  the  ground  containing  a  little  muddy  water.  There  were  no 
rags  on  the  bushes  near  representing  the  votive  offerings  of  pilgrims,  no 
coins  or  buttons  in  the  niud  at  the  bottom,  though  there  was  evidence 
that  the  well  had  been  lately  cleaned  out,  possibly  by  some  mother  who 

c 


IS  KILBAECHAN. 

]iad  brought  her  aihng  child  to  dip  it  in  the  lieaUng  water.  The  sur- 
rounding sacred  enclosure,  upon  which  the  revehy  of  the  pattern  or 
religious  festival  never  encroached,  is  still  clearly  marked;  beyond  it  there 
would  be  drinking  and  feasting,  music  and  dancing,  horse-racing  and  feats 
of  strength,  often  kept  up  with  unabated  vigour  for  five  or  six  successive 
days  (June  24-29)  ;  but  around  the  well  a  considerable  space  was  always 
kept  clear  and  unprofaned,  within  which  the  worshipper  could  withdraw 
to  i-e2:)eat  his  prayei's  or  perform  his  superstitious  ceremonies. 

The  summer  aspect  of  a  neighbourhood  is  necessarily  very  difierent 
from  the  winter  one.  In  July,  Clonsast  did  not  seem  a  melancholy  place. 
Tlie  extraordinary  courtesy  of  the  farmers,  the  sounds  of  the  mowing- 
machines  in  the  meadows  near,  the  brilliant  sunshine,  and  the  prospects  of 
an  early  and  plentiful  harvest,  produced  impressions  which  occasion 
memories  very  cheerful  and  pleasant.  And  yet  had  Barchan  been  at  liberty 
to  choose  the  sphere  of  his  labours  when  living,  and  the  place  with  which 
his  name  should  be  associated  after  he  was  dead,  he  must  indeed  have 
been  blind,  or  a  saint  specially  distinguished  for  his  self-denial,  if  he  had 
given  preference  to  this  Cluain,  or  sequestered  mead,  by  the  Bog  of  Allen, 
over  the  pleasant  vale  through  which  flows  the  lively  stream  which  laves 
the  foundations  of  his  Church  in  Strathclyde. 

Colgan  in  his  Acts  of  the  Saints  mentions  a  Birchanus  (p.  715 
n.  10).  A  church  in  Inishmore — the  largest  and  most  northerly  of  the 
Ai-an  Islands,  Galway  Bay — "is  called  Tempidl  an  cheatJirair  aluinn — i.e., 
the  Church  of  the  Four  Illustrious  Ones,  who  are  SS.  Furseus,  Brendanus 
Birrensis,  Conallus  and  Birchanus,  whose  bodies  were  borne  hither  and 
buried  in  one  tomb  in  the  cemetery  close  to  this  church."  Inishmore  is 
emphatically  the  Island  of  the  Saints.  For  some  reason  or  other,  possibly 
its  remoteness  and  isolation,  it  was  much  frequented  by  early  ecclesiastics 
and  it  now  contains  a  great  number  of  remarkable  antiquities.  It  is  the 
last  resting-place  of  many  Celtic  Saints.  St.  Columba's  fond  farewell  to 
it  has  been  translated  by  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  and  may  be  found  in  his 
History  of  Irish  Literature  : — 

Farewell  from  me  to  Ara's  Isle, 

Her  smile  is  at  my  heart  no  more  ; 
No  more  to  me  the  boon  is  given 

With  hosts  of  heaven  to  watch  her  shore. 


0  Ara,  darling  of  the  West, 

Ne'er  be  he  blest  who  loves  thee  not, 
When  angels  wing  from  heaven  on  high 

And  leave  the  sky  for  this  dear  spot. 


THE  SAINTS    OF   KILBAKCHAX.  19 

The  "  Church  of  the  Four  Illustrious  "  stands  near  the  centre  of  the 
island,  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  hamlet  of  Cowroogh.  The  site  is  a 
little  terrace  on  the  hill  side  facing  the  north.  The  edifice  is  thirty  feet 
long  and  sixteen  broad.  A  good  deal  of  the  walls,  the  pointed  north 
doorway,  the  altar  and  a  bracket  near  it,  both  of  them  of  stone,  the  east 
window,  and  traces  of  what  may  have  been  a  chamber  within  the  church 
at  the  west  end,  are  all  that  now  remain  of  the  ancient  structure.  The 
patch  in  which  the  ruin  stands,  a  hay  field  according  to  the  islanders' 
notions,  about  a  hundred  feet  long  and  foi'ty-five  feet  broad,  is  enclosed 
by  a  dry-stone  dyke.  A  well  just  outside  this  enclosure  has  still  a 
considerable  reputation  for  sanctity  and  healing  power,  as  appears 
from  the  numerous  bits  of  rag  tied  to  the  overhanging  ivy  and  bramble, 
and  the  number  of  buttons  and  similar  small  articles  to  be  seen  in 
the  water.  The  stones  w^hich  are  understood  to  mark  the  graves  of 
the  four  saints,  one  of  whom  may  be  our  St.  Barchan,  stand  in  a  row 
parallel  to  the  west  gable,  and  about  nine  feet  from  it.  The  two  to  the 
north  are  the  largest,  though  they  are  scarcely  two  feet  in  height.  There 
are  no  inscriptions,  and  any  straight  edges  are  due,  not  to  human  work- 
manship, but  to  the  natural  cleavage  of  the  calcareous  rock  of  which  they 
are  composed. 

Archbishop  Ussher,  in  his  Early  British  Church,  mentions  a  Byr- 
chinus  opposite  the  date  570,  "who,"  he  says,  "may  have  been  St.  Ber- 
chan,  of  whom  we  have  read  in  the  works  of  his  contemporary  Coemgenus 
(Keivinus),  that  though  he  was  blind  he  was  endowed  with  the  gift  of 
prophecy." 

It  does  not  seem  impossible  to  fix,  at  least  approximately,  the  time 
about  which  Barchan  lived.  His  name  occurs  in  The  Four  Masters  in 
conjunction  with  the  names  of  three  saints  whose  dates  are  known — 
Columba  (521-597)  and  Brendan  of  Birr,  his  contemporary  ;  and  Moling, 
the  contemporary  of  Adamnan  (624-704).  Therefore,  even  assuming  that 
Barchan  was  the  most  recent  of  the  four,  we  have  no  reason  for  putting  him 
later  than  700  a.d.  Again,  if  he  is  one  of  the  Four  Illustrious  who, 
according  to  Colgan,  gave  a  name  to  the  church  near  which  they  were 
buried  in  "Ara's  Isle,"  his  name  occurs  there  in  conjunction  with 
Brendan's  again,  and  with  Furseus',  whom  Bishop  Forbes  puts  at  650. 
Many  Saints  have  borne  the  name  Conall,  and  as  we  do  not  know  which 
of  them  this  is,  we  cannot  assign  to  him  dates.  If  we  assume,  again, 
that  Barchan  was  later  than  Brendan  and  Furseus,  his  date  is  only  after 
650.  According  then  to  this  line  of  argument,  Barchan  was  not  later  than 


20  KILBAECHAN. 

the  seventh  century,  and  if  he  is  the  same  as  Ussher's  St.  Berchan  he 
is  as  early  as  the  sixtli,  570  being  the  date  which  this  authority  gives, 
adding  that  he  was  "  the  contemporary  of  Keivinus,"  of  whom  we  know 
that  he  died  in  622  at  the  phenomenal  age  of  one  hundred  and  twenty. 
We  are  therefore  well  within  the  mark  if  we  assign  to  St.  Barchan  dates 
wnthin  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries ;  there  is  no  reason  whatever  for 
putting  him  later  than  700  A.D.,  and  he  may  have  been  as  early  as 
550  A.D. 

St.  Barchan,  or  one  of  the  same  or  a  similar  name,  enjoj'ed  a  great 
reputation  as  a  prophet.  The  prophecies — some  of  them  very  long,  some 
mere  scraps — ascribed  to  him  are  very  numerous.  They  are  all  written  in 
the  Erse  language,  and  some  are  to  be  found  only  in  manuscript.  It  may 
be  taken  as  certain  that  he  was  not  the  author  of  all  that  has  been  placed 
to  his  credit ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  had  he  not  had  an  established 
reputation  as  a  prophet,  his  name  would  not  have  occurred  in  connection 
with  so  many  of  these  nondescript  versicles  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the 
Celtic  race. 

The  prophetic  writings  ascribed  to  Barchan  are  of  two  kinds — the 
one  cryptic  and  oracular  in  style,  the  other  matter-of-fact  history,  under 
the  guise  of  prophecy.  As  an  example  of  the  former  class  we  quote  the 
following  from  The  Book  of  Howth — "  Carew  MSS."  : — 

In  Ireland  the  matter  shall  begin  at  the  number  of  7 

And  it  shall  be  made  an  end  by  the  number  of  an  11; 

In  Ireland  also  the  sun  shall  fade  and  lose  his  light ; 

Then  the  moon  shall  shine  when  Holy  Church  shall  undertake  to  try  the  right ; 

Then  their  treason  shall  begin. 

The  swan  shall  swim  the  river  along  and  trouble  the  water  with  his  toe  ; 

The  antelope  shall  chase  the  wolf's  whelp  when  the  old  wolf  is  agoe. 

A  dreadful  dragon  shall  stand  in  a  tower,  and  hearken  of  mickell  woe, 

Then  the  three  castles  shall  be  devoured,  so  then  Ireland  is  nigh  agoe. 

After  the  sun  shall  shine  out  of  the  North  East ; 

Then  the  moon  shall  change  at  the  full. 

Three  thousand  shall  die  upon  a  day  at  Kosberry,  live  who  so  may, 

Then  will  horses  go  to  grass,  and  spare  neither  corn,  neither  mead. 

Their  bridles  fast  upon  their  back,  their  bridles  upon  their  head  ; 

There  shall  be  no  grooms  them  to  keep  ;  their  master(s)  shall  be  all  gone  ; 

They  shall  be  out  a  whole  fortnight,  and  no  man  to  fetch  them  home. 

An  example  of  the  second  kind  of  writings  ascribed  to  our  Saint  is 
known  as  The  Prophecy  of  St.  Beechan — part  of  which  may  be 
found  in  Skene's  Chronicles  of  the  Picts  and  Scots.     It  is  really  a  brief 


THE   SAINTS  OF   KILBAECHAN.  31 

history  of  the  early  Irish  and  Scottish  kin^s  and  of  St.  Columba's  mission 
to  Scotland.  Modern  writers  of  history,  such  as  Skene  and  Andrew 
Lang,  consider  that  it  contains  trustworthy  information,  and  so  they 
frequently  quote  from  it.  Skene  says  that  it  was  written  about  the 
years  109-3-6,  when  a  fashion  prevailed  "  of  writing  history  in  the  form  of 
prophecy,  supposed  to  have  been  uttered  by  some  one  who  lived  long 
before  the  time  of  the  actual  writer  "  ^ ;  and  therefore  of  course  the  writer 
was  not  Barchan.  It  is  with  some  misgivings  that  we  see  the  reputation 
of  our  patron  saint  as  a  man  of  letters  given  away  in  this  manner,  and  we 
think  it  but  justice  to  his  memory  to  state  that,  if  he  lived  in  the  sixth 
or  seventh  century,  as  we  have  striven  to  show  that  he  did,  he  would 
have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  facts  contained  in  the  first  seventeen 
stanzas  of  the  poem,  and  he  would  have  been  in  a  position,  as  far  as  mere 
knowledge  goes,  to  have  written  them.  Still  further,  this  part  of  the 
poem  differs  from  the  rest  in  that  it  condescends  on  the  actual  names  of 
those  prophesied  about,  e.g.,  St.  Columba  and  King  Aidan,  instead  of 
merely  indicating  them  by  some  descriptive  epithet,  which  is  a  remarkable 
feature  of  the  other  part  of  the  poem.  This  difference  {to  the  lay  mind 
it  may  seem  very  sliglit)  indicates  the  work  of  two  writers — the  one 
ignorant  of  the  accepted  limitation  of  a  prophet's  power,  the  other  more 
artful  in  that  he  is  careful  to  avoid  giving  actual  names  which  it  is  believed 
no  prophet  can  do.  All  that  it  is  possible  to  maintain  on  these  grounds 
is  that  Barchan  may  have  written  the  first  seventeen  verses  of  this  long 
poem. 

The  following  is  a  free  rendering  of  this  part,  which,  unfortunatelv, 
on  our  hands  has  expanded  to  nineteen  verses.  : — 

Years  three  score  shall  pass,  bringing  gladness  and  sorrow, 

Till  the  birth  of  a  babe  in  his  royal  home  ; 
Joy  of  my  heart !  fond  love  greets  the  stranger 

Fated  to  Alban  from  Erin  to  roam.- 

Which  is  his  niche  in  the  world's  stately  temple  1 

Read  me  the  rune — what  is  destined  to  be  ? 
"  Priest,  prophet,  sage,  poet,  favoured  of  heaven, 

Such  is  his  lot  in  the  land  o'er  the  sea." 


'  Skene's  Preface,  page  xl. 

■  The  pseudo-prophet  pretends  that  he  is  writing  in  461,  60  years  before  St.  Columba's  birth. 


KILBAKCHAN. 

Glazed  grow  his  eyes  when  they  're  fixed  on  the  future, 

Rapt  is  his  glance  and  awful  his  tone  ; 
When  God's  will  and  word  he  declares  to  the  people 

Hearts  are  joy-warmed  and  silenced  their  moan. 

Though  Bridget  and  Patrick  have  left  us  for  ever 

Erin's  hero  and  saint  in  one  shall  he  be, 
His  clansmen  he  leads  on  the  field  of  Cooldrevny 

And  red  are  the  tracks  he  leaves  on  its  lea. 

Hark,  to  the  dirge  of  the  lone  and  forsaken. 

Giving  voice  to  their  grief  for  beloved  ones  slain, — 

In  palace  and  cot,  for  serf,  king  and  noble 
Echo  the  plaint,  hill,  meadow  and  main. 

Forth  from  his  home  goes  Columba  the  noble, 

Exiled  and  outcast,  his  galley  he  steers. 
Past  cliff  and  past  island,  pursue  him  his  foemen, 

His  rowers  are  fearful,  he  calmeth  their  fears. 

What  portents  are  these  which  attend  his  departure  ? 

Eed  are  the  waves  on  Lough  Foyle's  shingly  shore. 
Scream  of  the  sea  mew  and  tempest's  loud  roaring — • 

Will  this  true  son  of  Erin  come  back  never  more  1 

When  the  shore  line  has  sunk  to  a  mist  'cross  the  ocean 
The  exile  in  tears  makes  lament  o'er  his  fate, — 

"  Ere,  Erin,  thou  go  from  my  fond  eyes  for  ever, 
Hear  my  pledge  of  affection,  alas  !  it  comes  late. 

"  For  the  shelter,  lona  !  thou  givest  a  stranger 
A  life's  whole  devotion  thou  claimest  of  me. 

But  at  last  would  I  lie  where  my  saint  friends  are  sleeping 
Ah,  my  heart  fondly  turns,  dear  Derry  !  to  thee. 

"  Disciples  may  slight  the  commands  of  a  master, 
Angels  !  more  faithful,  regard  my  behest ! 

Bear  my  body  in  death  back,  back,  back  to  Erin, 
The  exile  will  then  be  its  welcomest  guest." 

And,  Hi !  though  thy  shrine  be  bereft  of  its  treasure. 
Thy  winds  to  thy  waves  echo  one  constant  name. 

The  cloisters  of  Derry  catch  up  the  smooth  measure — 
"  Columba,"  "  Columba,"  for  ever  the  same. 

But  long  be  his  life  in  the  land  of  his  pilgrimage, 
Many  and  great  be  his  deeds  o'er  the  sea ; 

Father,  Son,  Spirit  protect  him  and  save  him. 
Ye  Heavenly  powers,  ye  blessed  Trinitife  ! 


THE  SAINTS  OF   KILBAECHAX.  23- 

To  a  lodge  on  the  Ness,  far  away  thro'  the  wilderness, 
Where  a  monarch  holds  sway  o'er  heathen  hearts  rude, 

And  in  vassalage  keeps  even  Aidan  the  Erinach, 
Columba  sets  forth  to  encounter  King  Brude. 

No  Highland  welcome  awaiteth  the  stranger. 

Barred  are  the  gates  and  bent  are  the  bows. 
At  the  Sign  of  the  Cross  as  by  spell  of  magician 

Back  swing  the  doors  and  forward  he  goes. 

"  Sovereign  of  Pictland  !  give  ear  to  the  message 
God  charged  me  to  give  to  thy  country  and  thee, — 

'Let  heathen  knees  bow  to  the  Cross  in  contrition, 
Let  Aidan  rule  free  o'er  the  land  by  the  sea.'  " 

Soft  grew  the  heart  of  the  bold  son  of  Mailchon, 

He  smiled  on  the  pleader,  he  granted  his  crave  ; 
And  first  King  of  the  Scots  in  the  land  of  the  alien 

Made  Aidan  mac  Gabhvan  the  free  and  the  brave. 

Fate  gives  to  thee,  Aidan  !  no  peaceful  possession. 

Thy  sons  may  rejoice  in  the  lowing  of  kine, 
"Waving  of  corn  fields,  mixed  sounds  of  village  life. 

The  hunt  on  the  mountain,  the  prayer  at  the  shrine. 

Not  such  is  thy  fortune,  strifeful  thy  heritage. 

Thy  roof  but  a  shield  where  darts  fall  as  rain, 
From  field  to  field  of  war  thy  banner  seen  afar, 

Lendeth  heart  to  the  living,  renown  to  the  slain. 

Day  of  the  Thunder  god  bringeth  the  message  loud, 

Sounding  for  Aidan  the  call  of  "  Retire  ;  " 
Uncrown'd  and  unthron'd  yet  dauntless,  unconquer'd, 

God  gives  him  rest  'midst  the  hills  of  Kintyre. 

II. — St.  Mary  the  Virgin. 

From  the  charter  of  Thomas  Crawford  of  Auchinames,  A.D.,  1401, 
we  learn  that  there  was  ah'eady  an  altar  to  St.  Mary  the  Virgin  in  KIL- 
barohan.  Dedications  to  her  were  numerous  under  the  Roman  Church. 
The  reasons  for  her  commemoration  and  adoration  are  so  well  known  that 
it  is  unnecessary  to  set  them  forth  here. 


III.— St.   Cafha 


nne. 


From  Crawford's  charter  also  we  understand  that  he  contemplated 
erecting  a  shrine  and  chapel  to  a  saint  unnamed  in  the  "cemetery"  near 


24  KILBARCHAN. 

the  Church.  The  saint  afterwards  chosen  was  St.  Catharine.  The 
festival  of  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria — the  most  celebrated  of  the  name 
— fell  on  Nov.  25,  i.e.,  the  9th  day  befoi'e  St.  Barchan's  Day.  In  the 
absence  of  any  good  reason  explaining  why  St.  Catharine  was  chosen  as 
the  patroness  of  Crawford's  benefaction,  we  are  at  liberty  to  suggest  that 
the  Romanized  clergy  expected  that  by  instituting  an  orthodox  festival  si 
near  the  old  fashioned  one,  the  latter  might  come  in  coarse  of  time  to  b"* 
neglected  and  forgotten,  and  the  former,  supported  by  their  authority 
and  influence  might  take  its  place.  Barchan,  being  a  saint  of  the  native 
church  only,  had  no  place  in  the  Roman  Calendar  and  the  Roman  Catholi3 
ecclesiastics  did  not  look  on  the  preservation  of  his  memoiy  with  any 
favour. 

The  Roman  Breviary  gives  the  following  account  of  St.  Catharine  at 
November  25  : 

This  Katharine  was  a  noble  maiden  of  Ale.xandria,  who  from  her  eariiest  years  joined 
the  study  of  the  liberal  arts  with  fervent  faith,  and  in  a  short  while  came  to  such  an  height 
of  holiness  and  learning,  that  when  she  was  eighteen  years  of  age  she  prevailed  over  the 
chiefest  wits.  When  she  saw  many  diversely  tormented  and  haled  to  death  by  command 
of  Maximin,^  because  they  professed  the  Christian  religion,  she  went  boldly  unto  him  and 
rebuked  him  for  his  savage  cruelty,  bringing  forward  likewise  most  sage  reasons  why  the 

faith  of  Christ  should  be  needful  for  salvation Maximin  marvelled  at  her 

wisdom,  and  bade  keep  her,  while  he  gathered  together  the  most  learned  men  from  all 
quarters  and  offered  them  great  rewards  if  they  would  confute  Katharine  and  bring  her 
from  believing  in  Christ  to  worship  idols.  But  the  event  fell  contrariwise,  for  many  of  the 
philosophers  who  had  come  to  dispute  with  her  were  overcome  by  the  force  and  skill  of  her 
reasoning,  so  that  the  love  of  Christ  .Tesvs  was  kindled  in  them,  and  they  were  content 
even  to  die  for  His  sake.  Then  did  Maximin  strive  to  beguile  Katharine  with  fair  words 
and  promises,  and  when  he  found  it  was  lost  pains,  he  caused  her  to  be  hided,  and  bruised 
with  lead-laden  whips,  and  so  cast  into  prison,  and  neither  meat  nor  drink  given  to  her  for 

the  space  of  eleven  days At  that  time  Maximin's  wife  and  Porphyry,  the  Captain 

of  his  host,  went  to  the  prison  to  see  the  damsel,  and  at  her  preaching  believed  in  Jksus 
Christ,  and  were  afterwards  crowned  with  martyrdom.  Then  was  Katharine  brought  out 
of  ward,  and  a  wheel  was  set,  wherein  were  fastened  many  and  sharp  blades,  so  that  her 
virgin  body  might  thereby  be  most  direfully  cut  and  torn  in  pieces  ;  but  in  a  little  while, 
as  Katharine  prayed,  this  machine  was  broken  in  pieces,  at  the  which  marvel  many  believed 
in  Christ.  But  Maximin  was  hardened  in  his  godlessness  and  cruelty,  and  commanded  to 
behead  Katharine.  She  bravely  offered  her  neck  to  the  stroke  and  passed  away  hence  to 
receive  the  twain  crown  of  maidenhood  and  martyrdom,  upon  the  25th  day  of  November. 
Her  body  was  marvellously  laid  by  Angels  upon  Mount  Sinai  in  Arabia." 

1  Maximin's  date  is  end  of  third  or  beginning  ol  fourth  century. 
•  Translation  by  John,  Marquess  of  Bute. 


Sr.    BERC HAN'S  STONE,   CAIRN,   AND    THORN 

Clonsast,  King'f  Vounty 
Vide  pages  16,  17 


THE   SAINTS   OF   KILBAECHAN.  25 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  famous  monastery  of  St.  Catharine's  on 
Mount  Sinai  received  its  name  because  there  in  the  8th  or  9th  Century, 
the  monks  disinterred  a  body  which  they  took  to  be  that  of  the  Saint. 
The  fame  of  the  Virgin  Martyr  was  brought  to  Europe  by  the  returning 
Crusaders  [1096-1270]  \vhere  her  culfus  became  very  populai-.  A 
monastic  order— the  Knights  of  Mount  Sinai  or  of  Jerusalem — Avas 
instituted,  A.D.  1063,  in  her  honour.  In  Belgium  no  town  is  without  an 
altar  or  church  to  her  ;  at  Paris,  Louis  IX.  erected  a  costly  church  to  her 
memory ;  and  the  Maid  of  Orleans  claimed  her  special  flivour  and 
tutelage.  Her  head  is  alleged  to  be  preserved  in  the  Piazza  of  St. 
Peter's  at  Rome. 

She  has  been  regarded  as  the  patroness  of  schools,  because  of  her 
great  learning,  and  it  is  quite  in  keeping  with  this  her  traditional  office 
that  it  sliould  be  at  her  monastery  on  Mount  Sinai  that  so  many  valuable 
manuscripts  which  have  been  brouglit  to  light  of  recent  years  should  have 
been  preserved.  Here  Tischendorf  discovered  [1844-59]  the  famous  Codex 
Sinaiticus,  and  Ptendal  Harris  found  [1889]  the  Apohgij  of  Aristides ; 
and  most  interesting  of  all  to  Kilbarchan  people,  it  was  here  too  that  Mrs. 
S.  S.  Lewis  and  Mrs.  J.  Y.  Gibson  (once  the  IMisses  Smith  of  Spring 
Grove)  found  a  few  years  ago  the  Syiiac  manuscript  of  the  Gospels  of 
which  so  much  has  been  written. 

But  besides  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria,  there  are  other  five  of 
the  name  who  are  also  commemorated  : — 

St.  Catharine  of  Sienna,  April  30  ;  lived  1347-SO  ;  Canonized  by  Pius  II.  [14riS-64]. 

St.  Catharine  of  Bologna,  March  9  ;  lived  1413  63. 

St.  Catharine  Flisca  Adurna,  March  22  ;  Canonized  by  Clement  IX.  [1667-70]. 

St.  Catharine  de  Ricci,  February  13;  lived  1.521  90  ;  „  „    Benedict  XIV.  [1746]. 

St.  Catharine  of  Genoa,  Sept.  15,  lived  ab.  1510  ; 

IV.—St.  Bridgd. 

According  to  Colgan  there  have  been  no  fewer  than  25  saints  of  the 
name  of  Bridget.  The  most  celebrated  is  of  course  the  Abbess  of  Kildare 
—the  Mary  of  Ireland— who  died  February  1,  525,  at  the  age  of  74. 
O'Hanlon  devotes  224  pages  to  her  life. 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  office  for  her  day,  February  1st,  in 
the  Irish  supplement  to  the  Breviary  : — 

Bridget  the  Holy  Virgin  was  the  daughter  of  noble  Christian  parents  of  the  Province  of 
Leinster,  and  became  Mother  in  Christ  to  many  holy  virgins.     When  she  was  an  infant,  her 

D 


26  KILBAKCHAN. 

father  beheld  a  vision  of  men  clothed  in  white  pouring  consecrated  oil  upon  her  head, — an 
earnest  of  the  future  reputation  of  piety  and  sanctity  which  the  maiden  would  enjoy.  When 
scarcely  more  than  a  child  she  chose  Christ  to  be  her  bridegroom,  and  so  great  was  her  affec- 
tion that  she  would  spend  all  she  had  upon  the  poor.  Her  beauty  brought  her  many 
suitors,  and  to  save  herself  from  their  importunities  and  to  be  free  of  any  temptation  to 
violate  her  early  vow,  she  prayed  to  God  that  her  beauty  might  be  taken  away.  Her  prayer 
was  immediately  answered  by  one  of  her  eyes  becoming  much  swollen.  This  so  completely 
chanced  her  countenance  that  lovers  ceased  to  annoy  her  and  she  preserved  inviolate  the 

solemn  vow  she  had  made  to  Christ Accompanied  by  three  girls,  she  went 

to  Bishop  Maccaile,  a  disciple  of  St.  Patrick.  He,  beholding  an  aurole  of  flame  about  her 
head,  had  no  hesitation  in  investing  her  with  the  white  robe  and  the  white  veil,  and  with 
prayerful  rites  admitted  her  into  the  religious  order  which  St.  Patrick  had  introduced  into 
Ireland.  While  in  the  act  of  bowing  her  head  to  receive  the  veil  her  hand  touched  the 
wooden  pedestal  of  the  altar,  and  though  the  wood  had  long  been  dry,  it  at  once  began  to 
show  signs  of  growing;  her  eye  too  was  healed  and  her  former  beauty  was  restored.  Inspired 
by  her  example,  many  girls  entered  the  same  religious  order,  so  that  in  a  short  time  there  were 
communities  of  virgins  throughout  the  whole  of  Ireland.  The  chief  amongst  these  convents 
was  that  over  which  St.  Bridget  presided,  and  from  it,  as  the  acknowledged  head,  the  others 

took  their  instructions  and  directions Witness  is  borne  to  her  piety  by  the 

miracles  she  wrought  while  she  lived  and  by  those  due  to  her  after  she  was  dead.  In 
answer  to  her  prayers  lepers  were  cleansed,  and  health  was  restored  to  those  who  suffered 
from  diverse  diseases.  When  Broon,  the  Bishop,  was  falsely  accused  by  an  immodest 
woman,  St.  Bridget,  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  the  mouth  of  the  newly  born  babe, 
caused  the  infant  to  speak  and  tell  who  his  real  father  was,  and  thus  the  good  bishop's 
character  was  restored.  Nor  was  she  without  the  gift  of  prophecy,  for  she  was  able  to  tell 
many  future  events  as  though  she  actually  witnessed  them.  She  was  on  terms  of  pious  in- 
timacy with  St.  Patrick,  the  Apostle  of  Ireland  :  she  foretold  when  he  would  die  and 
where  he  would  be  buried  ;  she  was  present  at  his  death  ;  his  shroud  was  her  gift,  which 
she  had  prepared  some  time  before  his  death.  And  when  at  length  her  spotless  soul 
returned  to  Christ,  her  spouse,  her  body  was  interred  in  the  grave  where  St.  Patrick  lay. 

v.— St.  MarnocJc. 

It  is  just  possible  that  in  the  place  name  Lmnnarnocl  we  have  pre- 
served the  name  "  Marnoch  "  or  "  Marnock,"  diminutive  of  "Marnan,"  a 
saint  of  the  sixth  or  seventh  century.  He  is  by  some  identified  with 
Erneneus  the  naughty  and  spoiled  child  who  sought  to  touch  the  hem  of 
St.  Columba's  garment  at  Clonmacnoise  and  whose  future  greatness  was  then 
predicted.  He  was  the  friend  of  King  Aidan,  who  by  the  Saint's  help 
overcame  the  Saxons  in  a  great  battle  in  593.  Marnan  was  famed  as  a 
preacher ;  he  submitted  to  the  most  severe  penances,  he  avoided  honours 
and  all  worldly  ambitions,  and  was  especially  mindful  of  the  poor.  He 
was  buried  at  Aberchirder,  now  called  Marnoch,  in  Strathbogie,  where  a 
fair  on  the  second  Tuesday  in  March  is  an  approximation  to  the  Saint's 


THE   SAINTS   OF   KILBARCHAN.  27 

Day,  March  1st.  What  was  reputed  to  be  a  j^ortion  of  his  head  was  long 
preserved  by  the  chief  of  the  Clan  Innes,  and  the  water  in  which  this 
relic  was  washed  was  used  by  the  sick  and  infirm.  In  several  districts  in 
Scotland  his  memory  was  once  celebrated  and  his  name  still  survives,  ejj., 
Kilmarnock,  Dalmarnock,  Inchmarnock  near  Aboyne,  and  Inchmarnock 
in  the  Kyles  of  Bute  ;  at  Leochel  Cushnie,  Foulis  Easter,  Benholm  (near 
Fordoun)  ;  at  the  last  there  is  a  St.  Marny's  Well. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

KiLBARCHAN    IX    RoMAN    CaTHOLIC   TiMES. 

The  sacred  tapers'  lights  are  gone, 
Gray  moss  has  clad  the  altar  stoue, 
The  holy  image  is  o'erthrown, 
The  bell  has  ceased  to  toll. 


Departed  is  the  pious  monk, 
God's  blessing  on  his  soul  ! 

— Eediviva,  quoted  in  TIte  Ahhol,  chap.  viii. 

Influence  of  Paisley  Abbey — Earliest  notice  of  Kilbarchan — Walter,  son  of  Alan — Infeudation 
of  Renfrewshii-e — Former  condition  of  the  County — Vassal  knights — .Monasticism  as  a  civili- 
zer — The  carrucate  between  the  Cart  and  the  Gryffe — Where  does  the  Gryfl'e  end  ? — A 
church  as  a  gift — Rectorial  tithes — Vicarage  tithes — Fees — Manse,  garden,  and  glebe — 
Clerical  outlay — The  impersonal  parson — Penuld  or  Fulton — A  substantial  pious  gift — 
Ancient  boundaries  still  traceable — Master  Antony,  the  Physician,  and  his  fee — Thomas, 
son  of  Nicolas — Hugo,  son  of  Reginald — Achinchoss — Thomas  of  Fulton  and  Matilda  his 
wife — The  monastery  in  debt — William  Urri — Goldfridus  of  Nesbit — Fishing  on  the  Cart — 
Kilbarchan  tenants  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Influence  of  the  Collegiate 
Chukch  of  Sempill — What  is  a  Collegiate  Church  ? — Secondary  education  four  centuries 
ago — dedication — The  fourth  chaplain — Upper  Pennale — Robert  Reid's  house — East  and 
West  Bryntschelis — The  Jiffli  chaplain — Nethir  Pennale  and  the  mill  thereof — Musical 
education — Kilbarchan  Parish  Clerkship  provides  bursaries — East  Welland  (or  Weitland) — 
St.  Bryde's  Chapel — Meaning  of  the  '  Chapel  of  Nethir  Pennale  ' — Once  the  Church's  always 
the  Church's.  Chdrch  Office.s  and  Officials  in  Kilbarchan — The  Vicarage — Kilbar- 
chan vicars — Slender  salaries — The  Dean's  visits — Master  John  of  Kilberhan — Roger  of 
Kilberchan — Finlay  of  Clochoderick  (?) — Important  mission  for  the  vicar — James  Shaw — 
Henry  Moss — John  MacQueen — Tenants  on  the  Church  lands — Tlie  Clmplaincij  of  .S'i. 
Catharine's— The  foundation  charter— The  last  chaplain— r/ic  Parish  Clerkship— The  office 
— depletion  of  its  endowment — St.  Bride's  Cliapel — Tlie  chapel  at  Priestoii. 


I. — The  Influence  of  raidcy  Ahheij. 

The  earliest  notices  of  Kilbarchan,  or  of  any  of  the  places  within  the  pre- 
sent parish,  are  due  to  the  policy  pursued  by  Walter,  son  of  Alan,  in  his 
endeavours  to  settle  the  country  of  his  adoption  and  to  secure  himself  in 
his  possessions.  This  young  Norman  nobleman  came  from  England  to 
Scotland  in  the  time  of  David  I.  [1124-53].  Under  this  monarch  and  his 
28 


KILBARCHAN   IX   KOMAX   CATHOLIC   TIMES.  29 

successor,  Malcolm  IV.  [11 53-63],  he  rose  to  the  rank  of  "  High  Steward 
of  the  Scottish  Kingdom,"  and  received  from  his  royal  patrons  large 
grants  of  land,  including  the  most,  if  not  the  whole,  of  Renfrewshire. 

It  is  natural  for  us  to  ask  what  had  become  of  the  former  possessors 
of  these  estates — and  how  had  the  King  at  his  disposal  such  great  tracts 
of  country  to  bestow  upon  a  favourite  ?  These  lands  may  have  been 
demesne  or  fiscal  lands  belonging  to  the  Crown,  or  they  may  have  been 
estates  forfeited  on  account  of  the  treason  of  their  former  proprietors  ;  but 
we  are  perhaps  nearer  the  mark  if  we  see  in  such  a  grant  an  example  of 
the  systematic  policy  pursued  by  the  Scottish  monarchs  of  the  time — the 
object  of  which  was  to  substitute  for  the  turbulent  and  lawless  chieftains 
in  possession,  subjects  who  were  likely  to  be  more  law  biding  and  more 
loyal  to  the  crown.  This  was  in  some  ways  the  more  easily  accomplished 
because  in.  thcunj,  the  land,  under  the  old  Celtic  system  of  tenure, 
belonged  not  to  the  chieftain  but  to  the  tribe,  and  by  the  introduction 
of  feudal  tenure  the  vast  majority  of  the  native  population  were  in  no 
way  disturbed.  To  be  sure,  the  relation  in  \\'hich  the  lower  orders  stood 
to  the  soil  they  cultivated,  to  the  forests  in  which  they  Innited,  to  the 
rivers  on  which  they  fished,  was  changed  by  infeudation  ;  but  this  was  a 
matter  which  would  but  little  concern  them  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

The  possessions  on  which  the  Norman  nobleman  thus  entered,  were 
little  likely  to  be  such  as  would  yield  him  immediate  profit.  The  Royal 
authority  in  Strathgryffe  was  of  a  shadowy  nature.  Lord  Walter  was  at 
first  little  else  than  a  colonist.  Upon  his  arrival  he  found  very  little 
of  his  new  and  extensive  estates  reclaimed  from  the  primeval  forest,  moor- 
land and  fen.  Such  clearings  as  existed  would  be  but  poorly  cultivated. 
The  chiefs  and  their  followers  would  at  first  doubtless  be  disposed  to  treat 
his  charter  with  scanty  respect,  and  for  a  time  he  would  probably  have  to 
rely  on  his  own  and  his  followers'  stout  hearts  and  strong  arms  in  order  to 
obtain  a  sure  footing  in  his  possessions. 

Lord  Walter  prized  none  of  his  possessions  more  highly  than  Strath- 
grytle  :  near  Renfrew  he  built  for  himself  a  castle;  at  Paisley  he  founded 
a  great  religious  house  ;  in  the  surrounding  district  he  settled  several  of 
his  retainers  so  that  it  may  be  said  that  it  was  in  Renfrewshire  that  the 
House  of  Stewart  had  its  foundation.  The  settlement  in  his  lands  by  the 
Steward  of  knights,  so  far  independent  of  him  yet  owning  him  as  their 
overlord,  secured  for  him  the  hearty  co-operation  of  men  whose  aims  and 
interests  were  similar  to  his  ;  and  the  foundation  of  a  monastery  not  far 
from  his  castle  at   Renfrew,  was   likely  to  have  the  very  best  effect   in 


30  KILBARCHAX. 

civilizing  the  rude  and  restless  inhabitants  in  the  neighbourhood.  Both 
these  plans  were  portions  of  a  well-conceived  policy  which  was  steadily 
pursued  until  it  bore  fruit. 

The  men  of  religion  brought  by  Lord  Walter  to  Paisley  and  settled 
there  in  11G3  were  Cluniac  Monks.  They  came  from  the  monastery  of 
Wenlock,  near  the  home  of  his  youth  in  Shropshire.  The  religious  house 
they  occupied  at  Paisley  had  at  first  only  the  lower  ecclesiastical  status 
of  a  Priory,  and  not  until  more  than  sixty  years  after  its  foundation  did 
it  attain  the  higher  rank  of  an  Abbey.  Ample  provision  was  made  for 
the  support  of  the  religious  brotherhood,  not  indeed  in  inoney,  but  in 
money's  worth.  Lord  Walter  gave  them  lands,  mills,  fishings,  rents, 
and  various  other  rights  and  privileges,  and  when  we  read  that  he  gave 
"  that  carrucate  [or  plough  gate]  of  land  which  is  between  the  Cart  and 
the  Gryffe"  we  are  ready  to  think  that  land  in  Kilbarchan  Parish  consti- 
tuted part  of  the  original  endowment  of  the  Abbey.  The  Cart  to  which 
reference  is  made,  however,  is  the  White  Cart,  and  the  Gryffe  of  the 
charter  is  that  river  after  it  has  formed  a  junction  with  the  Black  Cart 
at  Walkinshaw  House.  This  portion  of  the  stream  does  not  now  bear  the 
name  of  Gryffe,  but  is  called  the  Black  Cart.  The  carrucate  of  land  men- 
tioned, therefore,  lies  between  the  White  Cart  and  the  Black  Cart.  It 
is  often  referred  to  in  subsequent  charters  as  the  insula  monachorum  or 
Monks'  Isle,  and  perhaps  corresponds  to  Abbotsinch  in  the  Parish  of 
Renfrew.  The  monks  were  also  given  for  the  support  of  themselves 
and  their  house  a  great  many  churches  throughout  the  county,  all  within 
the  Steward's  wide  domains,  amongst  others  the  Churches  of  Strathgryffe, 
with  the  exception  of  that  of  Inchinnan  ;  since  Kilbarchan  was  in  Strath- 
gryffe, the  Church  of  Kilbarchan  formed  j^art  of  the  endowment  secured 
to  the  Abbey  by  Lord  Walter's  charter. 

It  is  not  diBBcult  for  the  modern  mind  to  realise  the  worldly  advan- 
tage to  be  derived  from  the  ownership  of  lands,  mills,  rents,  etc. — but 
what  benefit  did  the  Religious  house  at  Paisley  reap,  asks  the  Piotestant, 
from  the  grant  of  churches  such  as  Kilbai'chan  ?  In  order  to  understand 
this,  it  is  necessary  to  look  for  a  moment  at  the  economy  of  the  National 
Church  in  Roman  Catholic  times.  Had  the  Church  of  Kilbarchan 
not  been  bestowed  upon  the  Paisley  Monastery  by  the  Steward,  had  it 
remained  an  independent  chiu'ch,  the  priest  at  Kilbarchan  would  have 
had  the  title  of  Rector,  and  as  such  he  would  have  been  entitled  to  every 
tenth  sheaf  of  all  cereals  grown  in  the  district  served  by  his  church — that 
is,  the  great  or  rectorial  tithes.     Had  the  Rector  been  too  great  a  magnate 


KILBAKCHAN    IX   ROMAN   CATHOLIC   TIMES.  31 

to  stay  at  home  and  attend  to  liis  parochial  duties  himself,  he  would  have 
appointed  a  vicar  or  substitute  whose  emoluments  would  have  been  the 
small  or  vicarage  tithe — that  is,  a  tenth  part  of  the  hay  crop  and  of  the 
produce  of  gardens,  poultry  yards,  stables,  byres,  etc.  Besides  the  greater 
and  small  tithes,  the  clergy  could  claim  certain  fees  for  baptisms, 
marriages,  burials  ;  and  there  were  in  addition  altar  dues,  fees  for 
extra  masses,  the  free  will  otierings  of  the  faithful,  and  the  endow- 
ment of  the  altars  if  they  were  endowed.  All  these  fees,  dues,  and 
offerings  would  fall  to  be  divided  between  the  Ptector  and  his  Vicar 
according  to  the  bargain  they  made.  And  then  over  and  above  all  this 
the  resident  priest — Kector  or  Vicar — would  have  a  manse,  a  garden, 
and  a  glebe.  Even  when  the  land  surrounding  the  Church — parishes 
were  not  yet  defined — was  much  less  productive  than  it  is  now,  a 
Hector  of  Kilbarchan,  if  he  had  taken  care  to  make  a  favourable  bargain 
witli  his  Vicar,  would  be  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  large  income — large  at 
least  relatively  to  the  standards  of  the  time.  Of  course  there  were 
liabilities ;  since  Kilbarchan  was  in  the  Diocese  of  Glasgow  and  in  the 
Deanery  of  Rutherglen,  a  Rector  there  would  have  to  contribute  so  much 
to  the  Cathedral  chapter,  so  much  for  Synod  fees;  he  would  also  have  to 
entertain,  and  to  entertain  well,  the  Rural  Dean  when  that  dignitary, 
followed  by  his  retinue,  arrived  to  pay  his  official  visit.  Part  of  the 
church  fabric,  the  chancel,  the  rector  would  also  have  to  maintain  ; 
and  when  the  exchequer  of  His  Holiness  at  Rome  was  at  a  low  ebb,  he 
could  be  taxed  a  year's  income  to  replenish  it.  But  in  spite  of  all  this 
outlay  the  Rectory  of  Kilbarchan,  if  it  had  been  left  in  existence,  would 
have  been  such  a  provision  as  was  not  to  be  scorned  by  the  needy  younger 
son  of  a  nobleman.  It  is  doubtful,  however,  whether  Kilbarchan  ever  had 
a  Rector — a  priest  enjoying  the  emoluments  of  the  great  tithe  ;  if  it  had, 
his  comparatively  lucrative  post  was  in  existence  only  during  the  time 
between  Queen  Margaret's  Reform  (1093)  and  the  endowment  of  Paisley 
Abbey.  In  virtue  of  the  Steward's  grant  of  the  Chui'ches  of  Strathgryffe 
(amongst  them  Kilbarchan)  to  the  Abbey  (1163?)  and  of  Jocelyn  the 
Bishop  of  Glasgow's  confirmation  charter  (1175-1199),  the  Abbey  acquired 
the  position  of  Rector  of  Kilbarchan,  and  became  the  i^ersona  vm2xtrsonee 
or  impersonal  parson ;  in  other  words  the  great  or  rectorial  tithe  went 
not  to  the  maintenance  of  a  local  priest,  who  might  have  been  styled 
"  Rector  of  Kilbarchan,"  and  would  have  shown  some  interest  in,  or  re- 
flected some  credit  on,  the  Parish,  but  into  the  granaries  of  the  Religious 
House  at   Paisley  ;  and  so  the  Parish  Priest  of  Kilbarchan  down  to  the 


32  KILBAECHAN. 

time  of  the  Refonnation  (15G0),  had  only  the  status  of  Vicar  with  slender 
emoluments. 

This  connection  of  a  church  with  its  rich  endowment  of  tithe,  etc.,  to 
a  great  religious  house,  exemplified  in  the  relation  of  Kilbarchan  Church 
to  Paisley  Abbey,  was  at  the  time  quite  common  ;  the  church  so  held  was 
said  to  be  appropriated.  Nineteenth  century  Protestantism  regards  the 
system  with  disfavour.  It  was  simply  feudalism  introduced  into  ecclesias- 
tical aflPairs.  It  had,  doubtless,  its  drawbacks — but  it  had  also  its  advan- 
tages. As  a  policy  it  went  not  only  to  produce  sleek  lazy  monks,  but  also 
to  raise  up  scholars,  thinkers,  saints.  Under  it  the  Parish  Priest  had  to 
be  content  with  a  bare  competency  instead  of  enjoying  comparative  afflu- 
ence, but  the  revenue  so  cast  loose  ensured  within  the  monastery  walls 
the  leisured  retirement  which  fosters  virtues  us  well  as  vices. 

Though  by  the  foundation  charter  (11G3)  the  Religious  house  at 
Paisley  obtained,  so  far  as  can  be  traced,  no  land  within  the  bounds  of 
Kilbarchan  Parish,  yet  the  monastery  was  only  a  few  years  in  existence 
when  a  pious  knight  gave  to  the  monks  lands  variously  described  as 
Penuld  or  Fulton.  It  was  customary  in  those  early  times  for  knights 
towards  the  evening  of  their  days,  wdien  weary  of  the  jarofession  of  arms, 
to  withdraw  from  the  world  and  to  seek  in  the  cloister  the  quiet  and 
seclusion  of  a  religious  life.  This  important  step  they  celebrated  by 
making  a  gift  to  the  monastery  which  received  them  into  its  brotherhood. 
A  vassal  of  the  Steward's  and  a  Kilbarchan  landlord,  by  name  Henry  of 
St.  Martin,  contemplated  taking  this  course  and  a  series  of  three  or  four 
charters,^  the  earliest  executed  before  1177,  the  latest  between  1208  and 
1233,  shows  that,  with  consent  of  his  son  and  his  overlord,  the  Steward, 
he  made  the  monks  at  Paisley  possessors  of  "  two  carrucates  of  land 
with  boundaries  as  follows  : — Beginning  at  the  water  of  Grif  and 
following  the  stream  which  is  called  Lochoc  as  far  as  the  rill  which  falls 
into  that  stream  ;  and  along  the  said  rill  southwards  between  two  hills 
['T\veen-ye-hills  ?]  as  far  as  the  main  road  which  goes  to  Penald,  and  from 
that  main  road  in  a  straight  line  along  the  side  of  the  great  rising  ground 
called  Bar-penald  towards  the  site  of  a  certain  ancient  chapel,  as  far  as  the 
adjacent  burn,  and  along  it  intil  it  falls  into  the  water  of  Kert,  and  along 
the  water  of  Kert  until  it  meets  the  water  of  Grif,  and  along  the  water  of 
Grif  as  far  as  the  aforesaid  stream  of  Lochoc."  - 


Reg.  de  Pans.,  pp.  48-50.  "Reg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  48-9. 


TEMPULL  AN  CHKATHRAIR  JLCIXX,   ;.<■.,   CIiriiCH   OF   THE 
EO UR   ILL  USTRIO ( \S 

Inislrniini;  Oiihnny  Bn'i 


SPECLMEN  PAGE   OE  MANUSCRIPT   OF  ONE   OF  ST.   BERCHAN'S 
PROPHECIES 

Koijal  IrUk   Aradem;/.   Dublin 
Vide  pctf/e  ^*0  and  foil. 


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rr?-:6^'i 


j^  ?i*     r^-f 


KILBAECHAX    IN    ROMAN    CATHOLIC    TLMES.  33 

After  the  lapse  of  seven  hundred  years  these  marches  may  be 
ti'aced.  It  is  curious,  however,  that  the  total  area  should  be  said  to  be 
only  two  carrucates,  or  208  acres,  whereas  the  real  area  is  of  more  than 
ten  times  that  extent.  This  discrepancy  may,  however,  be  easily 
explained  ;  the  charter  takes  notice  only  of  the  arable  ground,  the  land 
where  "plough  or  scyth  can  gang,"  and  leaves  out  of  account  the  moorland, 
fen  and  forest  among  which  the  cultivated  patches  lay.  The  standards  of 
land  measurement  at  the  time  were  based  on  work  done,  not  on  area.  A 
carrucate  was  the  extent  of  field  which  one  plough  could  labour.  The 
huge  unwieldy  ploughs  of  those  days  required  eight  oxen  to  draw  tliem, 
and  each  tenant  of  thirteen  acres  of  arable  land  had  to  keep  an  ox  to  help 
to  draw  the  common  plough  ;  and  so  eight  oxgates,  each  13  acres,  made 
one  carrucate  or  104  acres. 

The  Abbey  never  of  course  parted  with  its  Kilbarchan  possessions 
though  from  time  to  time  it  gave  parts  of  them  away  on  long  leases  and 
in  pledge.  It  appears  that  before  1204,  on  the  invitation  either  of  the 
Steward  or  the  Monks,  a  physician.  Master  Antony  by  name,  was 
induced  to  settle  in  the  neighbourhood.  "We  do  not  know  if  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  charging  fees  for  his  professional  services,  but  he  had  at  all  events 
a  salary — 20  merks  per  annum — paid  him  by  the  Abbey.  He  may  have 
found  it  difficult  to  get  payment  as  regularly  as  he  wished,  and  so  he  con- 
trived to  get  part  of  Heiny  of  St.  Martin's  gift  in  pledge  in  lieu  of  salary. 
One  Thomas,  son  of  Nicholas,  a  tenant  on  this  land  under  the  Abbey  paid 
a  yearly  rent  of  sixteen  merks  for  his  holding  ;  this  was  to  go  to  the 
Doctor,  and  the  balance  of  four  merks  he  hoped  to  be  able  to  get  out  of 
the  rest  of  the  land  leased  to  him.^ 

In  1225  a  dispute  arose  between  Hugo,  son  of  Reginald,  a  Knight, 
and  the  Abbey  regarding  the  land  called  Achinchoss — if  this  is  Auchans 
it  was  of  course  part  of  Henry  of  St.  Martin's  gift.  The  Abbey,  however, 
in  its  pleading  does  not  say  that  it  was  part  of  the  land  gifted  to  it,  but 
that  it  belonged  to  its  Church  of  Kilhelan  (Killallan).  The  dispute  is 
settled  by  Hugo  acknowledging  the  Abbey  as  superior  and  paying  half  a 
silver  merk  yearly  for  providing  lights  for  the  Abbey  Church.^  Before 
1272  Master  Antony,  a  Knight,  possibly  a  son  or  a  grandson  of  Master 
Antony  the  Physician,  surrenders  tlie  lien  he  had  on  Fulton  to  the 
monks,  receiving  for  his  rights  a  certain  sum  of  money  tu  relieve  him 
of  his  debts  ;^  and  soon  afterwards  Thomas  of  Fulton  and  Matilda,  his 

'  Recj.  de  Pass.,  pp.  53-5.  " /'«?■  de  Pass.,  pp.  372-3.  '  lieg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  501. 

E 


34  KILBARCHAN. 

wife,  get  a  lease  of  some  of  the  Abbot's  lands  in  Kilbarchan  for  the  time 
of  their  own  lives  and  the  time  of  the  Uves  of  their  three  successive  heirs 
— in  return  for  a  sum  of  money  paid  to  the  religious  house  to  relieve  it  of  its 
dehts.^  In  1409  William  Urri,  possibly  the  third  heir  of  Thomas  and 
Matilda,  restores  the  lands  of  Fulton  to  the  Abbot,  i-eserving  to  himself 
during  his  lifetime  tlie  principal  holding  only  - — jDerhaps  the  house  in 
which  he  lived  and  the  fields  adjoining  which  he  and  his  forbears  had 
themselves  cultivated.  In  1424  a  misunderstanding  arose  between  the 
Abbot  and  Goldp'RIDUS  of  Nesbit  regarding  the  lands  of  Auchinchos  or 
Auchinch  [Auchans?]  which  formed,  of  course,  part  of  Henry  of  St. 
Martin's  gift.  The  case  was  carried  to  the  King's  Council  at  Edinburgh, 
and  it  is  satisfactory  to  learn  that  at  length  Goldfridus,  moved  by  his 
conscience,  abandoned  his  claim,  whatever  it  was.^ 

Another  of  the  Kilbarchan  assets  of  the  Abbey  which  was  much 
valued  by  the  monks  was  the  right  of  fishing  on  the  Black  Cart.  This 
was  given  to  them  by  Alan,  son  of  Walter  the  founder.  There  is  a 
charter  of  William  the  Lion  [before  A.D.  1214]  confirming  to  them  "  half 
of  the  fishing  at  the  exit  of  Loucwynhok,  with  the  liberty  of  fishing  as 
often  in  the  lake  itself  as  Alan  himself  fished."  ^  James,  Steward  of 
Scotland,  in  1284  confirmed  the  monks  in  their  right  "  of  fishing  . 
in  Kertlochwinuok  (the  Black  Cart)  below  the  yare  [weir]  of  Hathen- 
donnam"5  (St.  Bride's);  and  again  [1283-1303]  he  promised  that  no  yare 
should  be  erected  by  him  "between  his  ijar  at  Hachyndunan  (St.  Bride's) 
and  the  monk's  yar  at  Lyncleyf "  ;  that  "  there  shall  be  only  one  yar  or 
fishing  between  lake  Loucwynhok  and  the  aforesaid  yar  at  Lyncleyf"  ; 
but  he  reserved  the  i-ight  of  taking  down  the  Auchendunan  yai-e  and  of 
re-erecting  it  anywhere  else  on  the  Cart  within  his  own  land." 

Paisley  Abbey  had  thus  considerable  possessions  in  Kilbarchan.  It 
drew  the  great  or  rectorial  tithe  of  the  Parish  and  perhaps  the  small  or 
vicarage  tithe  as  well  ;  it  owned  at  least  two  thousand  aci-es  of  land 
including  Fulton,  Auchans,  Linwood,  Blackstone.  The  first  three  were 
let  to  tenants,  and  yielded  annually  in  rent  more  than  £11  in  money, 
about  one  hundred  fowls,  and  in  the  form  of  labour  and  carting  a  good 
deal  of  money's  worth.  The  Abbot  usually  kept  Blackstone  in  his  own 
hands  as  a  home  farm  ;  there  he  had  one  of  his  granges  or  granaries  in 
which  he  could  store  the  grain  which  came  to  him  in  payment  of  tithes 

^  Reg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  51-3,  55-6.  "Reg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  56-8.  'Reg.  de  Pass.,  p.  70. 

*Reg.  de  Pass.,  p.  253.  ^  Reg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  92-6.  ^  Reg.  de  Pass.,  p.  254. 


KILBARCHAN    IN    liOMAN    CATHOLIC    TLMES.  35 

and  rents  ;  and  there  too  Abbot  George  Shaw  (1472—98),  attracted  by 
the  peaceful  beauty  of  the  rural  surroundings,  retired,  after  resigning  the 
office  of  Abbot,  to  spend  the  evening  of  his  days.  The  monks  had  also 
the  right  of  fishing  in  the  Black  Cart,  wliich  doubtless  then  afforded  good 
sport  and  helped  to  supply  the  refectory  table.  In  return  the  parish 
gained  from  the  proximity  of  the  religions  house  benefits  both  intellectual 
and  social,  of  which,  considering  the  civilization  of  the  time,  it  would  be  a 
grave  injustice  to  make  light.  j  "^(jP^SO 

We  learn  a  good  deal  about  Paisley  Abbey  in  the  capacity  of  landlord, 
and  something  of  the  condition  of  the  Kilbarchan  farmers  of  the  time,  from 
the  Rental  Booh  which  is  to  be  found  as  an  Appendix  in  Dr.  Cameron 
Lees'  Historij  of  Paisley  Abbey.  j\Iuch  of  what  this  Iloll  contains 
illustrates  Sir  Walter  Scott's  opinion  that  a  religious  house  made  a 
much  better  landlord  than  a  lav  baron  did,  for  this,  amongst  other  reasons, 
that  its  tenants  had  opportunities  of  developing  superior  knowledge  and 
skill  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  which  was  not  only  to  their  own  profit 
but  to  the  advantage  of  all  with  whom  they  came  in  contact.  The  entries 
in  the  book  referred  to,  extend  over  a  pei'iod  of  nearly  one  hundred  years. 
It  begins  with  the  year  1460,  when  Abbot  Henry  Crichton  and  his  bailie 
William  Sempill  drew  u])  a  complete  list  of  the  Abbey's  temporal  pos- 
sessions, with  the  names  of  the  tenants  to  whom  they  were  let,  and  the 
rents  paid  for  the  holdings.  It  would  be  unreasonable  to  expect  their 
successors  to  show  themselves  as  methodical  and  minute  as  modern  factors 
are — and  the  method  in  whicli  the  book  is  kept,  is  far  from  satisfactory. 
Those  whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  it  up  to  date,  made  erasures  and  insertions 
without  being  careful  on  all  occasions  to  add  the  date  when  the  corrections 
were  made.  Sometimes  a  new  and  complete  roll  is  begun,  e.g.,  that  in 
the  time  of  Abbot  llobert  Shaw  (1502),  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  finished,  and  it  is  also  full  of  erasures  and  insertions.  The  result  is, 
that  though  we  are  in  possession  of  a  great  nvunber  of  isolated  facts, 
it  is  difficult  to  arrange  them  in  chronological  order,  and  practically  im- 
possible to  compile  a  statement  of  all  the  tenants  and  their  rents  at  any 
particular  time.  The  confusion  is  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  while 
lands,  such  as  Fulton,  were  divided  amongst  six  or  eight  different  tenants, 
the  separate  holdings  had  as  yet  no  distinguishing  names,  and  so  recourse 
is  had  to  the  clumsy  expedient  of  referring  to  a  particular  holding  as  "the 
one  which  so  and  so  formerly  held."  In  such  an  expedient,  indeed,  we  see 
some  of  our  modern  place-names  in  the  course  of  formation  :  Buotstoun 


3G  KILBAKCHAN. 

undoubtedlj  takes  its  name  from  James  Bute  or  But,  and  Erskiiie  Faulds 
from  James  Erskine — men  who  were  tenants  under  the  Abbey. 

Abbot  Robert  Shaw  drew  up,  in  1502,  a  code  of  rules  to  which  his 
tenants  had  to  conform  under  pain  of  fine,  or  even  of  forfeiture.  Amongst 
other  things,  tliey  were  required  to  be  respectful  to  the  Abbot  and  his 
officers ;  to  receive  and  entertain  the  Abbot's  servants  when  required  ;  to 
give  the  Abbot  the  first  offer  of  any  stock  (merts,  vvedders,  or  fat  swine) 
they  had  for  sale,  which  he  might  buy  at  a  fair  price  ;  to  be  strictly 
moral  and  neighbourly  ;  to  be  punctual  in  paying  their  rents  and  in 
giving  their  days'  labour  ;  to  join  in  keeping  the  mill  dam  in  repair;  and 
to  assist  in  impounding  stray  cattle.  They  were  forbidden  to  acknowledge 
any  patron  or  superior  save  the  Abbot,  to  rt-peat  any  slander  regai'ding  the 
Abbot  Of  his  monks,  to  go  to  any  mill  but  the  Abbot's  with  their  corn  to 
grind,  to  destroy  growing  wood,  to  sub-let  their  lands,  to  change  or  to  be 
privy  to  any  change  of  land  marks,  or  to  allow  gule  (chrijsantkemum  sege- 
tiira)  to  grow  on  their  fields  after  Lammas  (1st  August). 

The  following  is  a  translation  of  the  portions  of  the  Rental  Booh  of 
Paisley  Abbey,  which  deal  with  Kilbarehan  lands. 

FOULTON. 
SOth  April,  lJ-f60.~\lenvy  Crechtoun,  Abbot,  and  William  Simpil,  his  bailie.' 

John  Simpil,         £\     0     0     Each  of  these  is  to  supply  four  days' labour 

Eobert  Clidishede,  ...       10     0  at  the  harvest  time,  two  cartings  (one  in 

Maky  Thomson,    ...  ...       0   1.3     4  summer  and  another  in  winter),  one  day 

William  Michalson,  ...       0   13     4  with  the  harrow,  one  day  at  the  hay;  to 

Henry  Browne,      ...  ...        1    13     4  give  12  fowls  value  12  pence,  with  other 

William  Browne,  ...  ...        1    13     4  services  use  and  wont.     Each  is  cautioner 

John  Simpson,       ...         ...       2     0     0  for  the  other  [t.«.,  frankpledge].    A  pledge 

John  Paslay,  1     0     0  is  to  be  tendered  in  silver  money  that  the 

days'  labour  will  be  given  when  required. 
Later  date,  perhaps  IJ^BIf.- 

Eobert  Synsoun £0   10     0      with  6  fowls  and  money  pledge  for  service  ; 

with  service  use  and  wont ;  John  Paslay, 
cautioner. 
Janet  Cuper,  wife    of  Mai-  with  service  use  and  wont  and  money  pledge 

colm  Saucer,      ...  ...       0  10     0  for  service. 

William  Symsoun, £2  0  0  payable  at  two  terms  in  the  year  with  ser- 
vice use  and  wont ;  Eobert  Symson,  cau- 
tioner. 

^  Lees'  Pdisleij  Abbey,  Ivi.,  Ivii.  =  Lees'  PaUley  Abbey,  Ixxviii.,  Ixxix. 


KI  LB ARC HAN 
Robert  Malcom,     

William  Methel,     

John  Paslay, 
Peter  Brown, 


USi  A.D} 

James  Bute, 

Peter  Brone, 
John  Mechelson, 

John  Broun, 

Alexander  Bute, 

Robert  Symson, 

John  Brone, 

John  Symson, 


Pentecost,  1502.- 

John    Brown,    door-keeper, 
Robert  Brown,  his  son,... 
Alexander  But, 

Robert  Symson's  widow,  ... 

William  Symson,  ... 

James  But,... 
Christian  Crafurd,... 

152i  A.D.^ 

John  Brown,  Junior, 


IX  ROMAN   CATHOLIC   TIMES.  37 

0  10  0  with  pledge  money  for  service,  the  cane  hen, 
service  use  and  wont ;  Robert  Bar,  cau- 
tioner. 

0  13  4  with  service  use  and  wont;  John  Paslay, 
cautioner. 

10     0     with  service  use  and  wont. 

2  0  0  with  service  use  and  wont.  Brown's  two 
holdings  were  formerly  leased  by  John 
Sempil  and  Robert  Clydishede,  and  in. 
asmuch  as  their  leases  ran  for  five  years. 
Brown's  lease  shall  run  to  Pentecost 
(Whitsunday),  1475. 

10  0  upon  the  resignation  of  the  widow  of  John 
Paslay,  with  service  use  and  wont. 

2   13     4     with  service  use  and  wont. 

0  13  4  with  service  use  and  wont  like  the  other 
tenants. 

2  13  4  with  service  use  and  wont;  Robert  Symson, 
cautioner. 

10  0  with  service  use  and  wont ;  William  Sym- 
son, cautioner. 

10  0  with  labour  and  service  use  and  wont ; 
William  Symson,  cautioner. 

0  13  4  with  service  use  and  wont  ;  John  Brone, 
cautioner. 

10  0  and  a  dozen  fowls,  and  labour,  and  cartings 
and  service  use  and  wont. 

(  and  4  dozen  fowls  with  service  use  and  wont: 
I      Andrew  Cochran,  cautioner. 
10     0     and  li  dozen  fowls,  with  other  service  use 

and  wont ;  Walter  Scot,  cautioner. 
10     0     and    li   doz.   fowls,  with   other  service  use 
and  wont  ;  John  Brown,  Senior,  cautioner. 
2     0     0     and  3  doz.  fowls,  with  other  service  use  and 
wont ;  cautioner. 

and    H   doz.    fowls,    with  service   use   and 
wont. 


0  10     0 
0   10     0 


0  13     4     and  a  doz.  fowls,  with  service  use  and  wont; 
John  Brown,  Senior,  cautioner. 


Lees'  Paibhij  Abbey,  civ.         "Lees'  Paisli"!/  Abbey,  cxviii. 


'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cxviii. 


KILBARCHAN. 


21  Feb.,  1525  A.I). 
John  Brown, 


Varioas  dates." 

Robert  Brown, 


John  Brown,  his  eldest  son, 
John  Buyt,... 

John  Hammyltoun,  Gran- 
ger, and  Archibald,  his 
son. 

John  Adam,  junr.,... 


John  Symsonj  son  of  Robert, 
JohnSymson,  


John  Symson  (son  of  Wil- 
liam), 
John  Symson  (son  of  John), 

Robert  Symson  (son  of  John), 


John  Knok  of  Wrayes,     ... 
John  Browne, 

William   Sympill,   of   Third 

pairt, 
John    Hammylton    of    Fer- 

Archibald  Hammylton,  his  so 


4     and  a  doz.  fowls,  12d.   as  pledge  for  days' 
labour,  one  carting. 
on  the  same  terms  after  the   death  of  John 
Knok  in  Wrayis. 

■i  and  4  doz.  fowls,  with  service  use  and  wont, 
viz.,  12d.  as  pledge  for  days'  labour,  a 
long  carting,  but  no  entry  money  (John 
Brownys  sted  4  merkland). 

on  the  same  terms  :  concluded  at  Hammyl- 
ton, 22  May,  1543. 
0     and   one  carting,    12d.    as  pledge  fur  days' 
work,  and  8  fowls. 

the  same  holding  now  let  to  the  Hamiltons 
on   the   above   terms  ;    concluded  at  Pas- 
lay. 
0     and  fowls,  1 2d.    as   pledge  for  days'   work, 
one  carting  :  concluded  15  Aug,  1539. 
This   is    the    holding    formerly    held   by 

Archibald   Hamtoun,   and  with  his  consent 

now  let  to  John  Adam. 

1^  doz.  fowls,  12d.  as  pledge  for  days'  work, 
one  carting. 

his  son,  succeeded  on  his  father's  death  at 
the  same  rent. 
This  is  the  holding  which  John  Hamilton 

possessed,  10th  April,  1539. 

and  3  doz.  pullets,  12d.  as  pledge  for  days' 
labour,  one  carting. 

succeeded  to  this  holding  on  his  father's 
death  at  the  same  rent  ;  8th  Feb.  1532. 

with  consent  of   his  father  by   paying  the 

same    rent,    reserving    to    the    father    a 

life  rent  ;  concluded  at  Edinburgh,   18th 

Aug.,  1550. 

10     0     H  doz.  fowls,  1 2d.  as  pledge  for  days' labour. 

succeeded  to  this  holding  on  the  death  of 
Knok,  21st  Feb.,  1535. 

succeeded  by  consent  of  the  eldest  son  of 
John  Browne. 

succeeded  by  consent  of  William  Sympill  by 
paying  as  above ;  concluded  at  Edin- 
burgh, 21st  August,  1550. 


1      0     0 


2     0     0 


Lees'  Paisley  Abbei;,  clii. 


-Lees'  Paisley  Abbty.  cli.,  clii. 


KILBAECHAN   IX  ROMAN   CATHOLIC   TIMES. 


Gilbert  Cumm3'n,  ... 
John  Cumyng,  his  son, 


The  Myll  of  ye  Fulton— 
£6     1      1 
6  13     4     concluded  at  Paisley,  11th  June,  1500. 


ArCHYNCHE. 


SOth  April  H60? 
James  Tat, 


H6Jt  A.IK- 

James  Tate, 


with  1 3  fowls,  four  days'  labour  at  the  har- 
vest, one  day  with  the  harrow,  one  day 
at  the  hay,  with  service  and  carting 
use  and  wont. 

as  before 


Prolnhly  somewhat  later.'-^ 
James  Tate, 


14S4  A.D^ 

Matthew  "Walace, 


Latei'  dafef.'^ 

^Yalter  Scot, 


Walter  Scot, 


1503  A.D." 

William  Conigham 
of  Craganis 


Subsequent  date  lirohaUy.' 

John  Knok  and  Elizabeth 


4  with  service  use  and  wont ;  Henry  Frog, 
cautioner. 

4  with  a  doz  fowls,  four  days'  labour  at  the 
harvest,  one  day  with  the  harrow,  one 
day  at  the  hay,  with  carting  and  other 
service  use  and  wont. 

4     with  a  doz.  fowls,   four  days'  work  at  the 

harvest,   one   day  with   the    harrow,  one 

day  at  the  hay,  with  other  service  use 
and  wont. 

4     with  2  doz.  fowls,   four  days'  work  at  the 

harvest,  one  day  with  the  harrow,  one 
day  at  the  hay,  with  carting  and  other 
service  use  and  wont. 

4     with   2   doz.  fowls,  four  days'  work  at  the 

harvest,  one   day    with    the    harrow,  one 

day  at  the  hay,  with  other  service  use 
and  wont. 

4  with  2  doz.  fowls  and  other  services  use  and 
wont,  1st  May,  1505  ;  witnesses,  Mr. 
Henry  Beverage,  Mr.  Walter  Morton,  and 
Archibald  Warnokis. 

4     with  2  doz.  fowls  or  1  doz.  capons,  4  days' 


Lees'  Paiskij  Abbey,  Ivii.  =  Lees'  Pahleij  Abbey,  Ixxvii.  ^  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  Ixxx. 

*  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cv.  '  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cv.,  cxviii.,  cxix. 

''Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cxvii.  "Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cxviii. 


KILBAKCHAN. 


Knok,  his  wife 


work  at  the  harvest,  one  day  with  the 
harrow,  one  day  at  the  hay,  with  carting 
and  other  service  use  and  wont ;  witnesses, 
John  Knok,  William  and  John  Mortown, 
under  above  rules  and  conditions  {i.e., 
Abbot  Kobert  Shaw's  Rules  for  the  Abbey 
Tenants,  1502,  Lees'  Puislei/  Abbey,  cxvi). 


John  Atkyn 

and  John  Knokis 


John  Atkyn 
and  John  Knok 


Sih  March,  15S9  A.D.'^ 
Gabriel  Cwnyghame 
of  Craganys 


jointly  and  severally,  with  4  wedders,  1  doz. 
geese  or  2  merks  at  the  Feast  of  St. 
Thomas  the  Less,  viz.,  Glasgow  Fair,  and 
other  service,  one  being  security  for  the 
other;  concluded  8th  February,  1519. 

(jointly  and  severally,  in  the  year  1519), 
with  4  wedders  at  the  Fair  of  Glasgow, 
one  doz.  geese  at  St.  Mirren's  day  or  2 
merks  ;  one  cautioner  for  the  other. 


4  with  2  doz.  fowls  and  other  services  use  and 
wont ;  witnesses,  Mr.  David  Hammylton, 
Kector  of  Thankertoun  ;  Mr.  James  Foster, 
Mr.  Gavin  Hamtoun. 


It  is  doubtful   whether   the   foUowuig  entries  refer    to   Auclians  in 
Kilbarchan  : — 

^  Lytilhtllis    lynt    Auchynh. — Feucd  to   Gilbert  Cwyngam    for   £3    6s.    8d.,  with    service 

use  and  wont ;  cautioners,  Ranald   Or  and  William 

Logan. 
*  A  part  feued  to  John   Anderson,  upon    the  death    of 

Christian  Herryng  for   13s.    lOd.,   with    service    use 

and  wont. 
*Achynge,    13s.    4d.,  land   feued  to  the  tenants  of  Boquhanran.     It  is  a  muir  stead  which 

pays  at  Martinmas,  the  whole  maill. 


146.^  A.D.'^ 

John  Simpill, 

Someivhat  later.' 
John  Sympyll, 


Lynwode. 

X2     0     0     with   service   use   and    wont  the    same    as 
John 

2     0     0     41    fowls,  four  days'  work  at   the   harvest, 
with  carting  and  service  use  and  wont. 


Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cv.,  cxxii.         ^Leea'  Paisley  Abbey,  clii.         ■'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  Ixxviii. 
*  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  Ixxix.  'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cxxxviii. 

'  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  Ixxix.  "  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cv. 


PEXULD  or   PEXn'OLIx> 


lil.ACKSlOXK: 


KILBARCHAX   IN   ROMAN   CATHOLIC    TIMES. 


Perhaps  I4S4  A.D} 

Part  to  Patrick  Sympill, 
„     „  Robert  Sympill, 


Date  someichat  later.- 

Part  to  Patrick  Sympyl, 

Date  still  later.' 

Part  to  Patrick  Sympill, 

John  Sympill, 

eldest  son  of  Patrick, 

£Srd  November,  1519.^ 

Part  to  Robert  Cochran, 

April  28,  1541.     December  2'. 
Part  to  Robert  Cochran, 

Andrew  Cochran,   ... 


John  Sympyll, 
Patrick  Sympyll,    ... 


1     0     0     and  6  fowls,  with  service  use  and  wont. 

10  0  with  6  fowls,  with  other  service  use  and 
wont;  the  said  Patrick  and  Robert  shall 
not  have  entrance  to  the  said  lease  as  long 
as  their  parents  are  alive. 

1  0  0  with  service  use  and  wont  and  9  capons 
(deleted),  1 8  pullets. 


1     0     0     IS  fowls,  with  service  use  and  wont;  Andrew 

Cochran,  cautioner. 
1     0     0     IS  fowls  and  pledge  money  for  days'  work 

and  other  service  use  and  wont. 


IS  fowls,  with  service  use  and  wont  ;  Patrick 
Sympill,  cautioner. 


15J^7^ 
..£10     0 


12d.  as  pledge    money  for    days'  work,   18 

fowls,  one  carting, 
succeeds  his  father  on  the  above  condition  ; 

concluded    at    Glasgow,    27th    December, 

1547. 
12d.   as  pledge    money  for  days'  work,    18 

fowls,  one  carting, 
succeeded  on  the  same  terms ;  concluded  at 

Glasgow,  28th  April,  1541. 


Blaxton. 

The  following  are  the  notices  anent  thi.s  property  : — ^ 

Blaxton  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Abbot  for  a  grange  :  the  rent  it  used  to  yield  was  20s.,  with 
poultry  and  service  use  and  wont. 

Blaxtoun  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Abbot  (deleted).  One  part  (from  the  wood  west)  is  leased  to 
John  Syme  and  James  Erskine  for  £10  per  annum,  free  from  all  other  service. 

Blaxton,  20s.  land,  in  the  hands  of  the  Abbot. 

Blaxton,  a  part  of  .  .  .  viz.,  Myddilton,  10s.  land  is  leased  to  James  Erskyn  and  John 
Symmyr,  for  £10.     James  Erskyn's  part  is  feued  to  John  Aitkyn,  with  consent  of 

Brown,  spouse  to  the  said  James  and  mother  of  the  said  John,  reserving  the 

life  rent  to  the  said  James  and  his  spouse,  by  paying  as  above  ;  concluded  Lythgw, 
14th  Jaimary,  1553. 

1  Lees'  Paisley  Ahheii,  civ.,  cv.         =  Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cv.         'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  cxviii. 

*Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  clii.  'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  Ivii.,  cv.,  cxviii.,  clii. 

F 


42  KILBARCHAN. 

A  part  of  Blaxton  is  feued  to  Thomas  Sympil  for     .     .     . 

Another  part,  with  mansion-house  and  policies,  10s.  land,  in  the  hands  of  the  Abbot. 

The  ward  above  the  Place,  10s. 

The  yard  of  Blackstone,  20s.,  to  pay  at  mertymess. 

The  fishing  of  the  water  of  Blaxton  wyth  the  crewis  [cruives]. 


n.—Thc  Collegiate  Chiircli  of  Sempill. 

Besides  Paisley  Aijbey,  another  religious  foundation,  more  local 
though  not  strictly  parochial,  drew  part  of  its  endowment  from  Kil- 
barchan  Parish.     This  was  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Sempill. 

Collegiate  Churches  according  to  some  writers  were  the  harbingers  of 
the  Pteformation.  Mainly  the  creation  of  the  fifteenth  century,  they 
were  the  outcome  of  the  pious  beneficence  either  of  those  who  had  begun 
to  look  with  suspicion  on  religion  as  fostered  under  the  auspices  of 
rich  abbacies,  or  of  noblemen  who  were  jealous  of  the  ecclesiastical  hier- 
archy, and  had  set  about  catching  up  the  churchmen  in  the  race  for  power. 
The  churches  were  called  collegiate,  because  they  had  a  college  or  chapter 
or  body  of  clergy  attached,  just  like  a  cathedral.  This  clergy  was  not 
regular,  i.e.,  bound  by  monkish  rules,  but  secular.  Part  of  their  time 
and  energy  was  employed  in  the  education  of  boys  ;  we  might  say  that 
they  kept  a  school — -a  school  in  which  more  than  the  rudiments  of  educa- 
tion were  taught. 

A  church  of  this  sort  was  founded  by  John  Lord  Sempill  in  1504-5. 
The  structure  which  was  the  material  embodiment  of  tliis  nobleman's 
pious  design  still  stands — not  altogether  in  ruins  but  roofless.  It  was 
dedicated  to  God  and  the  Virgin  Mary  who  was  to  be  the  chief  patron  of 
the  Kirk  ;  in  honour  of  all  the  saints  ;  for  the  salvation  of  King  James 
IV.,  his  Queen,  their  predecessors  and  successors  ;  and  for  the  salvation 
of  Lord  Sempill,  his  lady,  their  progenitors  and  successors.  The  College 
was  to  consist  of  a  Provost,  six  chaplains,  a  sacrist,  and  two  singing  boys. 
Provision  was  made  for  the  maintenance  of  this  staft'.  The  Provost  was 
to  enjoy  the  Rectory,  or  to  draw  the  rectorial  tithes,  of  the  Church  of 
Glassford  ;  the  sacrist  was  to  receive  the  dues  falling  to  the  Clerk  of  the 
same  Church  ;  each  of  the  chaplains  had  the  rents  of  certain  lands  allowed 
him  ;  the  two  singing  boys  were  practically  bursars  receiving  their  educa- 
tion and  their  board  and  clothing  from  the  fifth  chaplain,  who  was  to  com- 
pensate himself  for  his  outlay  under  this  head  by  impoverishing  the 
ofiice  of  Parish  Clerk  at  Kilbarchan.     The  college  doubtless  was  ready  to 


KILBARCHAN   IN    KO.MAN    CATHOLIC    TIMES.  43 

receive  and  educate  other  boys  besides  the  two  singing  boys,  but  for  their 
education  and  board  certain  fees  would  of  course  have  to  be  paid. 

The  foundation  charter  and  a  translation  may  be  found  in  the 
ArchcBological  and  Histor'ical  Collections  of  Renfrew  (Lochw.innoch), 
vol.  i.,  i>p.  57-76,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  the  following  extiacts  re- 
lating to  Kilbarclian  : — ■ 

The  Fourth  Chaplain  .  .  .  shall  have  for  his  maintenance  all  the  lands  of 
Pennale,  and  the  place  and  dwelling-house  which  Kobeit  Reid  formerly  inhabited  ;  besides 
the  gardens  and  orchards  of  the  same  with  the  pertinents,  and  also  40s.  of  annual  stipend 
from  the  East  Bryntschelis  and  "West  Bryntschelis,  lying  within  the  parish  of  Kilbarchan, 
amounting  in  whole  every  year  to  eighteen  merks  usual  money  of  Scotland. 

The  Fifth  Chaplain  .  .  .  shall  have  for  his  support  all  and  whole  the  lands  of 
Nethir  Pennale,  with  the  mill  thereof,  extending  every  year  to  twent3'-six  merks  usual 
money  of  Scotland. 

\_Duties  of  Fifth  Chnplain] : — And  he  shall  be  organist ;  and  shall,  within  the  precincts 
of  the  said  Collegiate  Kirk,  teach  daily  a  school  of  singing,  instructing  boys  therein, 
according  to  his  ability,  in  the  Gregorian  chant,  pointed  or  pricked,  and  with  descant ; 

[Maintenance  of  the  two  singinq  hoi/s] : — And  he  [the  Fifth  Chaplain]  shall  support  at  his 
own  expense  two  boys  in  necessary  and  becoming  food  and  clothing  to  serve  and  sing  in 
the  said  Collegiate  Kirk,  as  is  customary  in  other  like  kirks  of  the  kingdom  ;  and  for  their 
support  the  said  chaplain  shall  have  the  emoluments  of  the  parish  clerkship  of  Kilbarchan, 
the  presentation  to  which  belongs  by  law  to  us,  and  the  fruits  thereof  amount  to  ten  merks 
every  year,  deducting  the  expenses  which  shall  be  laid  out  by  the  said  chaplain  on  a  fitting 
parish  clerk  serving  the  parishioners  in  the  said  Parish  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan. 

Moreover,  the  said  Collegiate  Kirk  shall  have  FOR  bread,  wine  and  wax  for  living  or 
commons  to  be  had  therein,  the  five  merk  lands  of  East  Welland  {i.e.,  Weitland)  situated  in 
the  Parish  of  Kilbarchan,  which  also  we  now  grant  to  the  Collegiate  Kirk  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  of  Lochvinyock  ;  together  with  the  lands  which  formerly,  by  our  predecessors  for 
the  time  being,  were  annexed  to  the  chapel  of  St.  Bryde,  in  the  village  of  Kenmuir,  situ- 
ated in  the  same  Parish  ; 

Also,  we  ordain  that  if  the  foresaid  Lord  John  Sympill,  or  any  successor,  shall  happen 
to  present  to  the  chaplainry  (ad  capellaniam)  of  Nethir  Pennale  a  chaplain  unskilled  in  the 
Gregorian  chant,  prick  song,  in  descant,  and  in  the  organ,  or  who  is  not  qualified  to  instruct 
the  boys  of  the  foundation,  as  is  before  stipulated,  it  shall  be  lawful  to  the  ordinary  (the 
Archbishop  of  Glasgow),  for  that  occasion,  in  virtue  of  this  erection,  to  remove  him  that  is 

unfit,  and  to  appoint  another  that  is  qualified Also  we  ordain  and  desire, 

that  if  we  happen,  or  our  successors,  to  obtain  any  indulgences  from  the  Roman  Court  for 
small  oblations  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  lights,  the  chaplain  of  the  chapel  of  Nethir 
Pennale  (tiuod  capellanus  capellanie  de  Nethir  Pennale)  shall  receive  these  oHerings,  and 
shall,  once  a  year,  render  account,  as  has  been  appointed. 

The  words  "  chajjUun  of  the  chajjel  of  Netliir  Pennale,"  occurring  in 
the  last  sentence  of  the  above  quotation,  might  give  rise  to  the  inference 


44  KILBARCHAN. 

that  a  chapel  building  existed  there.  The  only  chapel  anywhere  near 
was  the  chapel  at  Priestoii  and  it  is  almost  impossible  the  reference 
should  be  to  it.  The  translation  ought  properly  to  be  "  the  chaplain  of 
the  chaplaincy  of  Nethir  Pennale,"  which  indicates  the  chaplain — the  fifth 
• — at  the  collegiate  church  of  Lochwiunoch  who  drew  his  endowment  from 
the  lands  of  Nethir  Pennale.  These  Pennales — upper  and  nether — were 
not  the  lands,  nor  parts  of  the  land,  in  Kiibarchan  formerly  granted  to 
the  monks  of  Paisley — and  the  note  to  that  efiect  in  the  work  from  which 
the  above  quotation  is  made,  is  erroneous.  "  The  road  at  Penuld  (apud 
Penuld),"  occurs  as  a  datum  for  a  boundary  in  the  charter  of  Walter  the 
feudal  supei'ior,  sanctioning  Henr}^  of  St.  Martin's  gift  [Paisley  Register, 
pp.  48,  49)  ;  and  in  the  charter  of  Henry,  the  granter,  [Register,  p.  49), 
the  same  land  is  spoken  of  as  "in  Penuld."  But  if  we  examine  with  care 
the  boundaries  of  the  land  given  to  Paisley  Monastery  in  1177  we  shall 
be  satisfied  that,  almost  to  a  certainty,  the  Pennales,  upper  and  nether, 
were  not  included  within  them.  Churchmen  were  forbidden  by  the  Canon 
law  to  alienate  any  of  the  possessions  of  the  Church  or  of  their  religious 
house.  Sometimes  church  lands  were  let  out  on  rather  long  leases — but 
then  on  conditions  which  ensured  that  they  would  revert  to  their  former 
owners.  An  abbot,  acting  on  behalf  of  his  monastery,  was  for  obvious 
reasons  particularly  careful  that  none  of  his  lands  should  fall  into  the 
hands  of  a  rival  religious  conununity. 


///. — Ch'firch  Ojffiees  and  Ojficials  in  Kiibarchan  before  the  Reformation. 
I.— The  Vicarage  of  Ku.barchan. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  lucrative  oflfice  of  a  Piectory,  main- 
tained by  the  great  teind  or  tithe,  was  not  in  existence  in  Kiibarchan 
after  the  foundation  of  the  Abbey  in  IIG.^.  The  Parish  was  thus  deprived 
of  the  services  of  the  class  of  pei'sons  whose  social  eminence  would  ha\  e  at 
least  helped  to  rescue  their  names  from  oblivion.  The  Abbey  Avas  the 
impersonal  parson  of  Kiibarchan,  and  drew  all  the  great  tithe  exigible 
from  the  parish,  while  the  parish  priest  of  Kiibarchan  was  merely  a  vicar, 
a  substitute,  a  deputy.  It  is  doubtful  whether  this  vicar  was  permitted 
to  enjoy  even  the  small  or  vicarage  tithe  ;  he  may  have  been  put  off  with 
the  altar  dues  alone — that  is,  the  interest  accruing  from  the  small  morti- 
fication which  the  priest  who  served  at  an  endowed  altar  was  entitled  to, 
and  such  ofierings  as  the  faithful   might  present  to  him.      Anyway,  the 


KILBAKCHAX    IN   ROMAN   CATHOLIC   TBIES.  45 

Vicarage  of  Kilbarchaii  was  never  a  position  of  impoitauce,  yet  it  was 
filled  from  time  to  time  by  clergymen  of  whom  residence  was  required. 
There  are  no  grounds  for  thinking  that  the  cure  was  at  any  time  left  to 
be  served  by  a  Paisley  monk,  who  would  merely  have  ridden  his  "  sheltie 
across  the  moor  on  Sundays  and  feast  days  to  say  mass  in  the  wretched 
chapel."  ^  No  doubt  the  Abbey  niiiy  have  grudged  seeing  the  slender  pit- 
tance of  the  vicar  go  |)ast  it.  Fain  would  the  monastery  have  been  imper- 
sonal vicar  as  well  as  impersonal  parson  (rector)  ;  but  the  vicarage  had  two 
sharp-eyed  protectors  in  the  persons  of  the  Bisliop  of  Glasgow  and  of  the 
Dean  of  Rutherglen.  These  dignitaries  had  tlie  right  to  levy  certain  fees 
from  the  mean  vicarage,  and  their  fees,  they  knew,  were  more  easily 
exigible  from  an  actual  and  secular  priest  than  from  a  powerful  Abbey, 
which  claimed  to  be  exempted  from  all  such  jurisdiction. 

Ill  a  valuation  of  benefices,  which  there  is  reason  to  believe  dates  as 
fai-  back  as  122(3, -  it  is  provided  that  "  the  vicar  of  Kilbarchan  is  to  have 
all  the  altar  dues  in  name  of  vicarage."  How  much,  or  rather  how  little, 
these  were  we  do  not  know  ;  we  can  only  compare  the  living  with  others 
in  the  neighbourhood.  The  vicars  of  Inverkip  and  Kilmacolm,  in  the 
same  valuation,  are  to  have  100  ^  shillings  from  the  altar  dues  ;  the  vicar 
of  Killallan,  the  whole  of  the  altar  dues  and  one  chalder  of  meal  ;  those  of 
Houston,  Cathcavt,  and  Carmunnock,  the  whole  of  the  altar  dues  and 
three  chalders  of  meal  ;  Mearns,  100  shillings  or  the  altar  dues,  with 
twenty-six  acres  of  land  nearest  the  church. 

In  Bagimond's  Roll  (1275)  the  Vicarage  of  Kilbarchan  is  valued  at 
£40  ;  again  to  compare  it  with  its  neighbours — it  was  the  same  as  Inver- 
kip and  Mearns,  greater  by  one-third  than  Cathcart,  Eastwood,  Killallan, 
and  Erskine,  and  less  by  one-third  than  Kilmacolm. 

In  a  valuation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  is  put  at  £34,  being  the 
same  as  Inverkip,  Meaims,  Erskine,  Killallan  ;  so  that  it  has  in  the  inter- 
val decreased  in  value  not  only  absolutely  but  relatively  as  well. 

But  the  vicar  was  not  free  to  enjoy  without  further  reduction  even 
the  humble  pittance  thus  left  to  him.  He  was  liable  in  certain  fees  to  his 
diocesan  superiors.  In  the  charter  already  referred  to,'*  the  conditions  on 
which  vicars  held  their  cures  in  122G  A.D.  are  cited,  and  confirmed  in  1469; 
the  vicars  are  to  pay  procuration  fees  and  the  other  incidental  charges  to 
which  by  law  their  churches  are  liable  ;  they  are  to  be  content  with  the 

'C.  Lees,  Paisley,  p.  228.  -  Rt(j.  rh  Pass.,  pp.  318-323. 

'One  hundred  shillings  sterling  would  be  equal  to  £60  Scots.  ''-Bcr/-  de  Pass.,  pp.  318. 


46  KILE  ARCH  AX. 

above-written  vicarages — that  is,  they  are  not  to  seek  to  exact  more  from 
the  tithe-swallowing  Abbey ;  and  their  residence  at  their  churches  is  to 
be  real,  and  as  required,  otherwise  they  shall  be  deposed.  The  procuration 
fees  arose  out  of  the  supervision  exercised  over  the  secular  clergy  by  their 
diocesan  superiors.  The  Dean  of  Rutherglen  came  to  Kilbarchan  at 
certain  stated  intervals,  once  every  two  years  perhaps,  and  saw  for  him- 
self how  the  vicar  was  doing  his  duty.  The  vicar  had  to  entertain  the 
De;in  on  the  occasion  of  his  visit.  This  practice  of  visitation  fell  into 
abeyance,  and  the  expense  formerly  incurred  by  the  vicar  took  the  form 
of  a  fee,  known  as  the  procuration  fee,  payment  of  which  was  rigorously 
exacted.  Besides  this,  there  were  synodal  fees  payable  to  the  Bishop 
and  Chapter  of  Glasgow,  and  fees  sometimes  to  the  Pope.  The  vicar  of 
Kilbarchan  must  have  been  a  poor  man  indeed  if  he  had  to  pay  all  these 
taxes  and  keep  body  and  soul  together  on,  say,  £40  Scots  a  year.  It  is 
always  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  money  had  then  a  purchasing 
power  which  it  is  now  difficult  to  appreciate,  and  it  is  just  possible  that 
the  vicar  was  content  to  let  the  greater  part  of  his  official  stipend  go  in 
payment  of  fees,  trusting  rather  to  the  offerings  of  the  faithful  than  to 
any  dues  or  payments  which  might  be  taxed  by  his  ecclesiastical  superiors. 

Few  of  the  names  of  the  vicars  of  Kilbarchan  have  come  down  to  us, 
and  of  the  individuality  of  any  of  them  we  know  next  to  nothing. 

Among  the  witnesses  to  a  charter  of  1225  ^  occurs,  "  Domino  Johanne 
de  Kilberhan  decano  de  walle  Clud" — Master  John  of  Kilbarchan,  Dean 
of  the  Clyde  Valley  ;  possibly  this  was  a  cleric,  a  native  of  Kilbarchan, 
who  under  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow  exercised  the  authority  of  Dean  over  the 
chui'ches  on  both  sides  of  the  Clyde. 

There  is  a  series  of  five  charters  containing  grants  to  Paisley  Abbey 
by  Maldovenus,  Earl  of  Lennox,  his  brother  Havel',  and  Dungallus,  in  which 
"  Rogero  vicario  de  Kilberchan" — Roger,  Vicar  of  KilharcJtan — occurs  as 
a  witness.  In  one  case  "  diacono,"  or  deacon,  is  added,  showing  that 
Roger  had  not  then  attained  to  full  priest's  orders.  The  dates  of  these 
charters  are  variously  given  as  122.5-70  and  1230.= 

In  two  charters,  one  of  1270,  the  other  of  1272,  amongst  the 
witnesses  is  "  Finlaio  de  Clochotrich  clerico,"  "Fynlaio  de  Clouchrocherg" 
— Finlay  of  Clochoderick,  a  cleric.-^  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he 
was  vicar  of  Kilbarchan,  and  his  territorial  designation  does  not  decisively 
show  that  he  belonged  to  Kilbarchan. 

1  Eeg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  372-3.  =  Reg.  de  Pass.,  pp.,  158-9,  162,  162-3,  210,  211. 

•'  Picg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  189-90,  233. 


KILBAKCHAX   IX   EOMAN    CATHOLIC   TIMES.  47 

In  1294  the  vicar  of  Kilbarchan — lie  is  not  named — was  sent  along 
with  four  other  vicars  on  an  important  errand  by  Bishop  Robert 
Wishart  of  Glasgow^  One  Robert  Reddehow,  and  Joanna  his  wife,  were 
laying  claim  to  some  of  the  land  in  the  Lennox  whicli  belonged  to  the 
Abbey  of  Paisley.  On  their  claim  being  contested,  the  Reddehows 
brought  their  case  before  the  Icnj  or  baron's  court  where  the  Earl  of 
Lennox  or  his  bailie  presided.  The  duty  laid  upon  the  five  vicars,  was 
solemnly  to  warn  the  Reddehows  against  proceeding  with  the  case,  and 
the  lay  court  that  it  had  no  jurisdiction  in  this  matter,  but  that  the  case 
pertained  to  the  ecclesiastical  courts  alone.  If  pursuers  and  bench  disre- 
garded this  warning,  then  the  five  vicars  clothed  in  white  sacerdotal 
robes  were  to  excommunicate  them,  and  to  denounce  them  as  excommuni- 
cated persons  in  all  the  Churches  of  the  Lennox  on  Lord's  Days  and  Feast 
Days,  with  candles  burning  and  bells  ringing  ;  and  they  were  to  forbid 
the  faithful  to  have  any  dealings  with  them  whatsoever,  i 

In  the  Rent  Roll  of  Paisley  Abbey  (A. D.,  1474—84),  Master  James 
Shaw,  Vicar  of  Kilbarchan,  is  witness  to  some  leases  : — 

Jacobo  Schaw,  vicario  de  Kilibarquhan.- 
Domino  Jacobo  Schaw,  vicario  de  Kilbarquhan.' 

One  of  the  feuars  of  Paisley  (a.d.  1490-1545)  was  a  vicar  of  Kil- 
barchan— Henry  Mouss  by  name  : — • 

Quharrell  Hill,  Domini  Henrici  Mouss,  vicar  of  Kilbarchan.* 

Possibly  the  last  vicar  of  Kilbarchan  under  the  old  Church  was  that 
Master  John  Makquhin  who,  with  consent  of  John  Hamilton,  Archbishop 
of  St.  Andrews  and  Abbot  of  Paisley,  "  granted  in  fee  to  Alexander 
Cunynghame  of  Craganis  his  heirs  and  assignees — the  church  lands  of  the 
Vicarage  of  Kilbai'chan  (occupied  by  James  Dowgall,  Isobel  Murdy, 
Margaret  Hucheon,  Mary  M'Kaw,  Gabriel  Hendirsoun,  John  Park,  and 
James  Andro)  ;  reserving  to  the  said  vicar  a  dwelling  house,  garden 
and  steading  occupied  at  the  time  by  Master  Adam  Watsoun,  Reader  in 
the  said  church  :  by  rendering  to  the  said  vicar  £10  annually."  The 
date  of  the  charter  is  1568.  It  was  confirmed  by  the  King  in  1575,  with 
the  proviso  that  the  confirmation  will  not  prejudice  the  manse  and  glebe 
reserved  to  the  minister  of  the  said  vicarage.^ 

'i.V(/.  de  Pass.,  pp.  201-4.  -  Leea'  Paisley  Abhoj,  p.  civ. 

'Lees'  Paisley  Abbey,  p.  cxix. ;  and  Peg.  de  Pass.,  p.  355. 
*  Hector's  Judic.  Rec,  ii.  p.  239  ;  and  Peg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  266,  349. 
^Peg.  Mag.  Sig.,  A.D.,  1540-80,  No.  2412. 


48  KILBARCHAN. 

The  motives  which  prompted  the  vicar  to  part  with  the  church 
lands  are  touched  upon  in  another  place.^  It  is  possible  that  this  vicar 
of  Kilburclian  was  one  of  two  John  Macqueens  who  were  accused  or 
convicted  of  an  attempt  to  undo  or  oppose  the  work  of  the  Reformation. 
The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  indictment  to  he  found  in  Pitcairn's 
CrimiiMl  Trials  : — 

Mar.  21,  May  10,  1563.  Tuo  Jhone  M'qnhyne',  Elder  and  Younger,  for  Popi-h 
practices  and  for  an  attempt  to  restore  the  Roman  Catholic  Religion  at  Paisley. 

IL— The  Ch.\plaincy  of  St.  C.^tharink's. 

Besides  the  Vicarage  of  Kilbarchan,  which  is  mentioned  as  in  exist- 
ence before  1225,  there  was  created  in  1401,  by  the  pious  generosity  of 
Thomas  Crawford  of  Auchinames,  another  ecclesiastical  office  which  may 
be  described  as  "  the  Chaplaincy  of  St.  Catharine's  Chapel."  2  The  foujida- 
tion  charter  is  too  long  to  quote  in  full,  but  the  following  is  a  summary  of 
its  contents  : — 

Charter  of  Thomas  de  Craufurd,  Baron  of  Auchixajiys.^ 
Be  it  known  that  I  for  the  salvation  of  my  soul,  and  of  the  souls  of  my  wives  and   of 
the  soul  of  Reginald  de  Craufurd,  my  grandfather,  and  of  the  souls  of  our  fathers  and  of 
our  mothers,  of  our  predecessors,  of  our  heirs  and  successors  and  of  all  the  faithful  departed, 

have  given,  granted,   and  confirmed to   God,  to  the   Holy 

Mary  Mother  of  God  ever  a  virgin,  and  to  all  the  Saints the  whole  of  my 

land  of  Lynnernocld,  two  merks  from  the  land  of  Glentuijne  with  all  their  pertinents  and 
easements  whatsoever,  three  merks  of  the  annual  rental  (payable  in  two  equal  portions  at 
the  customary  terms)  of   my  lands  of    Cakachani,  of   Corhar,  and  of  the  whole  land  of 

Achinamys for  the  maintenance  of  a  chaplain  ministering  at   the  altar  of 

the  Holy  Virgin  Mary  in  the  Church  of  Kilbarchan  or  IN  A  chapel  about  to  be  built  in 

THE  CHURCHYARD  OF  THE  SAID  CHURCH The  chaplain  shall  do  duty  himself 

and  reside  at  the  place— shall  hold  no  other  benefice — shall  not  perform  the  duties  of  the 
parish  priest  by  saying  masses  for  souls,  or  in  any  other  respect  whatsoever ;  if  he  do 
so,  he  shall  be  deprived  of  office,  and  cannot  anew  be  presented  to  it,  nor  can  any  pro- 
vision be  made  for  him  out  of   its  revenues The  light  of  presentation  is 

vested  in  the  Founder,  his  heirs  and  assignees,  and  the  right  of  admitting  and  instituting 

the  chaplain  in  the  Bishop  or    Chapter  of  Glasgow If   the  patron  fail  to 

present  an  eligible  person  within  four  months  of  the  occurrence  of  a  vacancy,  the  right  of 
presentation  shall  devolve  on  the  Bishop  or  Chapter,  but  without  prejudice  to  the  patron's 
rights  at  a  subsequent  vacancy  ...  If  the  patron  or  his  successors  act  in  any  way  in 
violation  of  any  of  the  conditions  herein  set  forth,  they  shall  pay  £40   for   the  upkeep  of 

1  Vide  Family  uf  Ciiningliaiiie,  fifth  lairJ. 

=  An  enclosure  marking  the  site  of  St.  Catharine's  Chapel  is  used  as  a  bur^  iiig-place  by  the 
proprietors  of  Auchinames. 

=>  Nisbet's  Heraldry,  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  88. 


KILBARCHAN   IN   ROMAN   CATHOLIC   TIMES.  49 

the  fabric  of   Glasgow   Cathedral,   besides   incurring  ordinary   ecclesiastical  censure  and 

sentence The  Dean  of  Rutherglen  shall  visit  the   chapel   at  least  once  a 

year — oftener  if  necessary — to  see  that  the  patron  is  carrying  out  the  terms  of  the  founda- 
tion charter The  document  is  signed  by  Mathew  (Glendoning)  Bishop  of 

Glasgow,  John  Symple  of  Eliotston,  Robert  Symple,  Malcolm  de  Galbrat  Lord  of  Greenock, 
John  de  Craufurd,  brother  of  the  founder,  and  many  others,  and  is  ratified  at  Arneall 
October  24,  UOl,  by  King  Robert  III.i 

While  the  Abbey  of  Paisley  was  growing  rich  by  depleting  most  of 
the  other  ecclesiastical  offices  in  the  neighbourhood,  this  was  one  on 
which  it  never  succeeded  in  laying  its  hands.  The  endowments,  however, 
^vere  lost  to  the  cause  of  religion  at  the  Reformation  by  being  made  over 
to  a  layman. 2  We  know  the  name  of  only  the  last  occupant  of  the  office 
— Master  David  Curll — whose  name  occurs  in  the  following  Charter  : — 

At  Linlithgow,  March  31st,  1565. 
The  Queen  confirmed  the  charter  granted  by  Master  David  Curll,  perpetual  chaplain 
of  the  chapel  or  shrine  of  St.  Katherine  in  the  church-yard  of  Kilbarchane, — [by  which, 
with  the  consent  of  James  Chalmer  of  Gaitgyrth  now  patron  of  the  said  chapel  (by  reason 
of  the  gift  of  the  wardland  of  Auchnamys  [Wardend  ?]  with  the  patronage  of  the  said 
chapel  made  to  him  by  the  Queen),  also  with  consent  of  James  (Beaton),  Archbishop  of 
Glasgow,  his  ordinary — he  gave  in  feu  to  a  distinguished  young  man  John  Chalmer  brother 
german  of  the  said  James  Chalmer,  to  his  heirs  and  assignees— the  glebe  and  chapel  lands  of 
the  said  chapel,  viz.,  the  4  merk  lands  of  Lymmarnock,  the  2  merk  lands  of  Glentyane  and 
Dantoun,  with  an  annual  revenue  of  3  merks  from  the  lands  of  Calyuchant,  Corbair  and 
Auchnames  in  the  barony  and  county  of  Renfrew  ;  By  giving  annually  to  the  said  chapel 
the  10  pounds  which  formerly  it  was  customary  to  pay,  and  3  shillings  and  4  pence  in 
augmentation  of  rental  ;  also  doubling  the  feu  duty  on  the  entrance  of  an  heir  : — with  pre- 
cept of  sasine  : — AVitnesses,  David  Campbell,  Andrew  Chalmer,  William  Bannatyne, 
William  Symple.  At  Torbolton,  12th  Dec,  1564.]  Moreover  she  dispensed  with  the 
statutes.' 

III.— The  Parish  Clerkship  of  Kilbarch.ax. 

There  was  yet  a  third  ecclesiastical  office  in  Kilbarchan  before  the 
Reformation  ;  this  was  the  office  of  Parish  Clerk  with  an  endowment 
yielding  ten  merks  a  year.  In  an  episcopal  church  the  duties  of  the 
Parish  Clerk  are  to  lead  the  congregation  in  the  responses,  and  generally 
to  assist  at  public  worship  and  at  funerals.  He  is  always  a  layman  now 
like  the  precentor  of  Presbyterianism  ;  but  in  Roman  Catholic  times  the 
Parish  Clerk  of  Kilbarchan  was  a  clergyman,    though   perhaps  only   in 

'  Vide  Nisbet's  Systeyii  of  Heialdry  :  Fauiily  of  Crawford. 

^  Vide  Family  of  Crawford  of  Auehinanus.  '  Reg.  Mag.  Sig   154C-80  a.d.     No.  IGOO. 


50  KILBARCHAN. 

minor  orders.  None  of  the  names  of  those  who  filled  this  office  have 
come  down  to  us.  The  office  was  depleted  of  its  endowment  by  John 
Loixl  Sempill — the  patron — on  the  occasion  of  the  erection  of  the  Col- 
legiate Church  of  Lochwinnoch  (1504-5).  The  revenue  was  given  by 
the  foundation  charter  to  the  fifth  chaplain  to  feed  and  clothe  the  two 
singing  boys  or  bursars,  but  the  chaplain  was  to  provide  "  a  fitting  parish 
clerk  to  serve  the  parishioners  in  the  said  Parish  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan." 

IV.— St.  Bride's  Chapel  and  the  Chapel  at  Prieston. 

Besides  those  mentioned,  there  were  other  two  religious  foundations 
within  the  boundaries  of  Kilbarchan  Parish — a  chapel  dedicated  to  St. 
Bridget,^  and  a  priest's  dwelling,  as  the  name  implies,  and  according  to 
Maxwell's  account  a  chapel  too  at  Prieston.  The  information  available 
about  these  is  meagre  in  the  extreme.  We  gather  from  the  foundation 
charter  of  the  Sempill  Collegiate  Church  that  St.  Bridget's  Chapel  was 
endowed  with  some  land  granted  by  some  of  John  Lord  Sempill's  prede- 
cessors ;  and  that  the  revenue  from  this  is  now  devoted  to  providing  bread, 
wine,  and  wax  for  living  and  commons  at  the  collegiate  church.  In  1696 
the  chapel,  or  at  all  events  a  house  called  "St.  Bryde's  Chappell,"  was 
inhabited  by  Thomas  Orr,  a  weaver,  and  Isobel  Jamieson,  his  wife ;  ^  and 
in  1709,  27th  December,  a  John  Jamieson  married  a  Margaret  Orr,  who 
is  described  as  residing  there." 

Of  the  chapel  at  Prieston,  Maxwell  writing  in  1705  says  : — "A  little 
to  the  east  of  the  castle  (Ranf  urlie)  there  are  vestiges  of  an  old  Roman 
chapel ;  though  nothing  remains  but  the  foundation,  yet  the  present 
tenant,  Robert  Donaldson,  says,  his  fiither  remembered  the  walls  three 
feet  high.  The  floor  was  of  clay,  which,  being  dug,  contained  human 
bones.  The  farm  is  called  Prieston  ;  and  the  house  remains  the  same  as 
when  the  priest  lived  in  it."  The  house,  which  has  evidently  been  ex- 
tensively repaired  since  Maxwell's  time,  though  perhaps  not  entirely 
rebuilt,  is  now  uninhabited.  It  is  rapidly  becoming  a  ruin,  and  will 
doubtless  soon  be  removed.  About  sixteen  yards  to  the  north  of  it  there 
are  traces  of  masonry  which  may  lie  the  remains  of  the  chapel. 

1  The  site  of  •'  St.  Bridget's  Chapel  in  the  Village  of  Keumuir"  ia  marked  by  an  ash  tree  on  the 
high  road  about  sixty  yards  west  of  the  entrance  to  St.  Bride's  Mill  House. 
-See  Poll  Tax  Bulls.  ^ Lochu-innoch  i.,  p.  69. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

KiLBARCHAN    AFTEK   THE    REFORMATION,    1567-1G46. 

The  wood  is  fallin,  the  Church  not  built 

Nor  Reformation  end  it  ; 
The  cedar  great  is  now  cut  doun 
Who  first  that  work  intendit. 

— Ehgij  en  Mr.  David  CaJderwood, 
Ob.  29  Oct.,  1650. 

Date  of  tiie  Reformation,  1560  or  1567— Lack  of  responsible  clergy— Readers— Salaries— What 
became  of  the  wealth  of  the  old  Church— The  Abbey  lands— The  Kirk  lands— Tlie  chaplaincy 
of  St.  Katharine's— Claud  Hamilton's  Kilbarchan  possessions— Provision  for  minister  or 
rector— Vicars,  John  Cwynyngharae,  Gawyn  Hammiltoun— Readers,  Watsoun,  Cunynghame, 
Cwik,  Crawford— Ministers,  Fleming,  Levingstoun,  Bell,  Stirling,  Hamilton— The  Vicar  acts 
as  Reader — The  jogges  and  lynnen  clothes — John  Knox  of  Ranferly  profanes  the  Sabbath — 
Slays  his  uncle— Robert  Cochran's  aggravated  assault— Holiday  makers  and  their  penalty— 
Pypeirs  and  daunceris— Withstanding  a  presentee— The  Presbytery's  Act— Mr.  Hamilton 
defies  the  Presbytery — Professes  penitence  and  gives  proof  thereof — Absentees  from  the 
Communion — Noble  papists — The  Presbytery  encourages  the  Minister  to  persevere — Sabbath 
breakers — What  Presbytery  accomplished — Value  of  Church  discipline — A  minister  who  needed 
a  bishop. 

No  chapter  in  the  history  of  Scotland,  and  consequently  in  the  history  of 
a  parish,  is  more  difficult  to  write,  than  that  dealing  with  the  Reforma- 
tion. Even  the  date  of  that  event  is  variously  stated.  In  1560  the 
Scottish  Parliament  passed  three  Acts — the  first  abjuring  the  authority  of 
the  Pope,  the  second  repealing  all  religious  beliefs  save  those  contained  in 
the  Confession  of  Faith,  and  the  third  prescribing  penalties  for  celebrat- 
ing, or  being  present  at  the  celebration  of,  the  Mass.  These  Acts  did  not 
receive  the  Royal  sanction.  In  1567  the  same  or  similar  Acts  were 
re-enacted,  and  on  this  occasion  were  ratified  by  the  head  of  the  state — 
the  Regent  Murray.  This  explains  why  the  Scottish  Reformation  is 
dated  by  some  1560,  and  by  some  1567.  In  these  Acts,  however,  we 
have  the  Pteformation  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  destructive.  The  construc- 
tive work  of  the  Reformation — the  building  up  and  substituting  a  new 
Church  in  place  of  the  old  on  a  firm  and  well-established  basis — took  a 
great  many  years  to  accomplish  ;  some  question,  perhaps  not  without 
reason,  whether  this  has  even  yet  been  accomplished. 


52  KILBARCHAN. 

The  first  diiSculty  the  Ptefonners  had,  arose  from  a  lack  of  ministers 
— of  clergymen  who  could  be  trusted  to  preach  the  Reformed  Faith.  In 
1574  four  parishes — Paisley,  Neilston,  Kilbarchan,  and  Mearns — had  but 
one  minister  amongst  them  :  first,  Mr.  Patrick  Adamson,  and  then  Mr. 
Andrew  Polwart.  Ministers  with  several  parishes  under  their  charge 
were  assisted  by  a  class  of  men  known  as  Readers,  one  of  whom  was 
stationed  in  nearly  every  parish.  The  Pieader  is  described  as  being  "  an 
apt  man  who  could  read  the  common  prayers  and  the  Scriptures 
distinctly,  and  could  thus  exercise  both  himself  and  the  congregation  till 
they  grew  to  greater  perfection"  in  the  Reformed  Faith.  He  could  not 
be  trusted  to  pi-each  lest  he  should  preach  heresy  ;  he  was  not  allowed  to 
dispense  the  sacraments  nor  to  perform  the  ceremony  in  marriage.  Until 
1578  the  clergyman  resident  at  Kilbarchan  was  only  a  Reader,  and  the 
the  parish  was  visited  from  time  to  time  by  a  Minister. 

Another  difficulty  the  reformers  met  with,  was  that  of  providing 
competent  salaries  for  their  clergy.  Only  a  very  small  part  of  the  vast 
wealth  accumulated  by  the  Roman  Catholic  organisations  ever  came  their 
way.  Almost  the  whole  of  the  princely  endowments  of  the  Abbey  of 
Paisley,  no  inconsiderable  part  of  which  came  from  Kilbarchan,  went 
to  the  last  abbot  and  his  family,  the  ancestors  of  the  present  family  of 
Abercorn  ;  John  M'Queen,  the  last  vicar  of  Kilbarchan  under  the  Roman 
Church,  leased  or  feued  for  his  own  behoof,  though  that  is  not  evident 
from  his  charter,  what  pertained  to  him  as  vicar;  and  David  Curll, 
the  last  chaplain  of  St.  Katharine's,  dealt  in  a  similar  manner  with  the 
endowments  of  his  chapel.  In  course  of  time  a  small  portion,  but  only  a 
small  portion,  of  what  had  belonged  to  the  pre-Reformation  Church  was 
rescued  from  the  grasp  of  needy  noblemen  and  too  wide-awake  churchmen 
and  set  apart  as  a  very  modest  endowment  for  the  clergy  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. There  was,  moreover,  a  Vicar  of  Kilbarchan — a  vicar  only  in  name 
and  in  salary — still  living  as  late  as  1(528,  who  intercepted  the  greater 
part  of  what  would  now  be  regarded  as  the  Minister's  stipend,  and  whose 
discharge  of  any  ecclesiastical  duty  was  spasmodic  in  the  extreme. 

The  hold  which  Claud  Hamilton,  abbot  in  commendam,  had  on  the 
Abbey  revenues  seemed  at  one  time  rather  precarious.  He  held  the  office 
and  enjoyed  the  emoluments  from  1553  until  15G8,  but  then  getting  into 
disgrace  by  supporting  Queen  Mary's  cause,  he  was  succeeded  by 
Robert,  Lord  Semple,  who  held  the  lucrative  post  for  four  years  [1568-72]. 
Hamilton  was  re-established  again  for  five  years  [1572-9],  but  again  he 
got  into  trouble,  and  William  Erskine,  parson  of  Campsie,  nephew  to  the 


KILBARCHAN  AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  53 

Earl  of  Mar,  entered  upon  the  enjoyment  of  the  revenues,  until  in  1587 
Claud  Hamilton  once  again  came  into  what  he  mvist  have  begun  to  believe 
was  his  own}  The  Kilbarchan  subjects  which  once  belonged  to  the  Abbey 
for  religious  purposes,  but  which  now  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Abercorns  were,  according  to  the  charter  of  date  22nd  March,  1591-2,  as 
follows  : — 

Blaxton,  with  the  mansion,  manor  and  fortalice,  and  the  meadows,  woods  and  moss- 
lands  adjacent. 

Fulton,  with  its  mill  and  its  coal  pits. 

The  lands  of  Middiltoun,  Lynwode,  Achanis,  Rywrayis,  Wyndiehillis,  Mureheid,  with 
all  lands  whether  waste  or  cultivated. 

The  chiu'ch  lands  of  Kilbarcbeane. 

The  tithes  of  Kilbarcheane,  its  manse,  glebe  and  all  other  benefices  whatsoever,  rec- 
torial or  vicarage. 

The  patronage  of  the  church  of  Kilbarchan. 

Claud  Hamilton  is  obliged  to  institute  a  rectory  in  connection  with  the  Parish  Church 
of  Kilbarchan  (as  in  the  other  churches  belonging  to  the  Abbey)  and  to  grant  to  the  minis- 
ter or  rector  and  to  his  successors,  a  manse  or  glebe  together  with  an  annual  stipend  to  be 
paid  by  him  and  his  successors  out  of  the  tithes  ;  the  Kilbarchan  stipend  to  be,  "  four 
chalders  of  meal  and  the  small  vicarage  tithe,  i.e.,  tithes  of  lambs,  of  wool,  of  hay,  of  flax,  of 
geese,  of  suckling  pigs,  etc. — expressly  excepting  the  vicarage  tithes  of  the  17  merk  lands 
of  the  Fultounis."  - 

Though  the  dale  of  this  charter  is  1587  oi-  1592,  its  main  provisions 
were  doubtless  being  carried  out  some  time  before.  When  we  find  tliat 
John,  son  of  William  Conynghame  of  Craigans,  was  presented  to  the 
Vicarage,  27th  March,  1585,  we  are  left  in  doubt  whether  the  presenta- 
tion was  made  by  Claud  Hamilton  in  virtue  of  the  rights  of  presentation 
which  he  at  a  later  period  possessed  by  charter  and  which  he  may  liave 
exercised  some  years  earlier,  or  whether  this  scion  of  the  house  of  (Jraig- 
enrls  is  called  Vicar  of  Kilbarchan  in  virtue  of  the  feu  charter  of  the 
church  lands  of  the  vicarage  of  Kilbarchan  granted  by  John  M'Queen, 
Vicar,  in  favour  of  Alexander  Cunynghame  of  Craganls,  his  heii'S  and 
assignees,  which  bears  dates  1568  and  1575.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  Vicar  John  Cunynghame  was  an  ecclesiastic  or  even  a  graduate — 
no  evidence  that  he  was  an  apt  man  who  could  read  the  connnon 
prayerd  and  Scriptures  distinctly — no  evidence  that  he  even  thought 
it   worth  his  while  to  try  thus  to  edify  the   parishioners  of  Kilbarchan. 


'Metcalfe's  Documents  and  Charters  relathnj  to  Paisleij. 
■Reg.  Mag.  Sig.,  a.d.  1580-1593,  No.  2070. 


54  KILBARCHAN. 

If  there  were  abuses  connected  with  his  tenure  of  oiiice  he  was  only  for 
a  short  time  responsible  for  them,  as  within  a  year  Gawyv  Hammylton 
became  Vicar  of  Kilbarchan — "  placit,  15th  March,  1586."  Gavin 
Hamilton  continued  to  be  Vicar  for  at  least  forty  years  ;  for  he  was 
still  alive  and  in  office  in  1628  when  with  others  he  signed  a  document 
testifj'ing  that  Marion  Boyd,  Countess  of  Abercorn,  who  was  suspected  of 
Popish  sympathies,  was  through  weakness  and  infirmity  unable  to  travel 
and  answer  for  herself  before  the  Privy  Council.'  He  was  Vicar  during 
the  ziiinistries  of  Fleming,  Levingstone,  Bell,  Robert  Stirling,  and  during 
part  of  Andrew  Hamilton's  ministry.  These  ministers  can  have  been 
but  poorly  paid  since  a  Vicar  appropriated  the  greater  part  of  their 
stipend.  On  the  occasion  of  Andrew  Hamilton's  admission  as  Minister 
of  Kilbarchan  [3rd  January,  1605],  the  presbytery  cause  it  to  be 
recorded  that, 

.  .  .  Gavein  Hamiltoun,  vicar  of  Kilbarquhan,  is  long  of  before  lawfullie  provydit 
and  admittit  be  the  kirk  to  the  vicarage  of  Kilbarquhan,  manse,  gleib  and  kirk  lands  yrof, 
and  sensyne  hes  servit  ther.  Thairfor  it  is  judiciallie  concludit  be  act  of  presbyterie  with 
the  advyse  and  consent  of  the  said  Mr.  Andro  Hamiltoun,  That  the  said  Gavein  sal  posses 
enjoy  and  brake  at  his  plesor  the  forsaid  vicarage  and  all  pertinents  yrof  with  the  houses 
and  yaird  presentlie  possest  be  him,  and  tua  ackeris  of  the  gleib  land,  and  that  indureing 
all  the  dayes  and  space  of  his  lyftyme  without  impediment  or  trouble  of  the  said  Mr.  Andro 
or  any  other  his  successors  quhatsomevir. 

During  the  forty  years  when  he  enjoyed  the  vicarage  (we  cannot  say 
that  he  held  office),  Gavin  Hamilton  must  have  been  pretty  much  of  ;m 
incubus — or,  at  all  events,  so  the  ministers  must  have  thought  him.  Yet 
when  for  two  yeai'S  there  was  no  minister  in  Kilbarchan  [1603-5]  the 
Vicar,  either  seeing  in  this  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  gifts  and 
graces,  or  being  constrained  by  public  ojainion  to  do  something  for  his 
stipend,  condescended  to  perform  the  duties  of  Pteader.  Whether  he  read 
the  prayers  and  Scriptures  to  much  purpose  does  not  appear,  but  he  at  all 
events  kept  a  very  watchful  eye  on  the  morals  of  the  parishioners,  and 
brought  no  end  of  Kilbarchan  delinquents  under  the  notice  of  the  Presby- 
tery. Upon  the  death  of  Gavin  Hamilton,  the  Vicar,  which  occurred 
after  1G28,  Andrew  Hamilton,  the  Minister,  came  into  the  enjoyment 
of  a  manse,  garden,  and  glebe,  and  also  a  stipend  which  may  then 
have  been  considered  competent  though  it  was  meagre  enough.  The 
Beformation  clergymen   who    held    office   in    Kilbarchan    before  Andrew 

'Itey.  of  Privy  Council,  2nd  Series,  Vol.  II.,  p.  344. 


KILBAKCHAN   AFTER  THE  REFOEMATIOX.  55 

Hamilton,  whether  they  are  called  Readers  or  Ministers,  were  wretchedly 
paid. 

The  first  Protestant  clergyman  at  Kilbarchan  was  Master  Adam 
Watsox.  It  is  more  than  likely  that  he  had  been  a  monk  or  priest,  or 
perhaps  he  had  only  been  preparing  to  take  orders  when  the  E,eformation 
took  place.  Upon  professing  Reformed  views,  however,  he  would 
become  eligible  for  office  in  the  Reformed  Church.  The  office  he  held 
was  that  of  Pteader,  not  a  responsible  post.  The  salary  was  in  keeping' 
with  the  responsibiHties.  The  charter  of  John  Makquhin,  Vicar  of  Kil- 
barchan (executed  1568,  confirmed  1575),  reserves  to  Master  Adam 
Watsoun,  Reader  in  the  church,  a  house,  garden,  and  steading  (perhaps  it 
is  glebe) ;  and  in  The  Register  of  Ministers  and  their  Stipends 
SINCE  1567  is  found  "Kilbai-chan,  Adam  Watsoun,  xxlib.,"  i.e.  £20  Scots.^ 
This  was  just  the  price  of  one  chalder  (16  bolls)  of  victual.  The  value  of 
a  chalder  to-day  is  about  £13  4s.  When  we  think  of  his  slender  stipend 
we  find  ourselves  fervently  hoping  that,  whatever  was  the  progress  made 
b}^  his  congregation,  the  Reader  at  all  events  arrived  at  greater 
perfection  in  the  Preformed  faith,  and  that  in  course  of  time  he  secured  a 
more  comfortable  living  than  that  provided  for  him  at  Kilbarchan. 

In  1572,  Alexander  Cunynghame  was  Reader  ;  in  1574  his  salary 
amounted  to  £26  13s.  4d.  It  was  at  this  time,  1574,  that  Patrick 
Adamson  had  the  ministerial  charge  of  Kilbarchan  and  other  three 
parishes. 

In  1576,  Kilbarchan  is  found  dissociated  trom  the  group  of  four 
parishes  (Paisley,  Neilston,  Kilbarchan  and  Mearns)  and  has  become  one 
of  a  new  group  oftliree  parishes  (Houston,  Killallan,  Kilbarchan)  which 
share  the  ministrations  of  Robert  Cwik  or  CuiK.  The  following  is  the 
entry  under  1576  in  the  Book  of  Assignations  : — 

KrLEAUCiiAN. — Kobert  Cuik,  minister,  his  stipend,  xxxiii  lib.  vjs  viijil.,  with  the  gleib 
and  manse  of  Houstoun,  etc. 
[  ]  reidar  at  Kilbarchan,  his  stipend,  the  haill  vicarage  of 

Kilbarchan  vacand  xxvj  lib.  xiiis.  iiijd. 

Robert  Culk  was  one  of  those  who  in  course  of  time  did  succeed  in 
growing  to  greater  perfection  in  the  Pteformed  faith.  In  1567  he  was 
Exlwrler    at    Killallan.        An    Exhorter    was    higher    in    office    than    a 


1  £10  may  have  come  from  Cuninghame,  the  feuar  of  the  vicaraj;e  hiiuls,  and  £M  from  John 
Chalmer,  the  feuar  of  the  lands  of  St.  Katharine's  Chiipel. 


56  KILBARCHAN. 

Reader,  in  tliat  he  was  entitled  to  add  a  running  comment  on  the 
of  Scripture  which  he  read.  In  1574  he  was  minister  at  KiUailan  with 
a  stipend  of  £40  Scots;  in  1576  minister  of  Kilbarchan,  etc.  ;  in  1578 
minister  of  Kihnacohn,  which  he  left  in  1580.  lu  1583  one  of  the  same 
name  is  described  as  vicarius  pensionarius  de  Cardros.  ^ 

In  1577  Robert  Ceauford  is  Reader  at  Kilbarchan. 

In  1578  James  Fleming  is  Minister  at  Kilbarchan.  He  was  one  of 
ten  laureated,  or  who  graduated,  at  Glasgow  University  in  1578,  and  was 
a  member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1581.  " 

In  1591,  John  Bell  is  Minister.  He  had  graduated  at  Glasgow 
University  in  1581.  He  gave  only  part  of  his  time  and  attention  to  his 
parish,  being  at  the  same  time  Regent  (or  Professor)  at  the  University. 
He  was  only  two  years  in  Kilbarchan — the  usual  length  of  an  incumbency 
however.  He  was  afterwards  minister  of  Cardross  [1593-4],  and 
of  St.  Mary's,  or  the  Tron,  Glasgow  [1594-1641].  His  son,  a  John  Bell 
also,  was  for  a  time  assistant  to  his  father  in  the  Tron,  and  successively 
minister  of  Eaglesham  [1631-36]  and  of  Blackfriars  or  the  College  Church, 
Glasgow  [1636-40]. 

In  1593,  Robert  Stirling  is  Minister.  He  belonged  to  the  Stirlings 
of  Law,  and  by  his  mother  or  grandmother  was  connected  with  the  Craig- 
ends  family.^  He  had  graduated  at  Glasgow  University  in  1586.  The 
people  of  Kilbarchan  liave  doubtless  been  often  accused  of  much  of  which 
they  have  been  entirely  innocent.  Possibly  they  did  not  break  the  heart 
of  the  worthy  and  "godly  Robert  Stirling  by  their  slighting  of  him," 
though  Lady  Auchinames,  nee  Margaret  Houston  (ob.  May,  1641),  said 
they  did.  When  anyone  complained  in  this  lady's  hearing  that  Stirling's 
successor,  Andrew  Hamilton,  was  not  all  that  might  be  expected  of  a 
minister,  having  shown  his  particularly  broad  views  by  joining  his 
parishioners  In  a  game  of  football  on  Sundays,  and  his  humour  by  general 
untimely  and  unseemly  merriment,  this  strong-minded  lady  insinuated 
with  more  directness  than  delicacy  that  "  this  infliction  In  the  shape  of  a 
fifty  year  old  plague  of  a  minister  "  was  just  what  the  Kilbarchan  people 
deserved  for  their  behaviour  to  Robert  Stirling. 

Stirling's  name  occurs  at  least  three  times  in  the  Presbytery 
Records  : — 


Ricj.  Mag.  .Si;;-— Charter  601,  Jac.  vi.  2  CaUenvw.d's  Uistonj,  Vol.  III. 

-  Vide,  third  laird  of  Craiuends. 


KILBAECHAN    AFTER   THE   REFORMATION.  57 

Dec.  2,  1602. — The  Brethren  of  the  Fresbyterie  of  Pasley  ....  appoyntit  Mr. 
Robert  Sterling  to  entret  the  contravertit  head  of  religioun  touching  the  Governement  of 
the  Kirk     .     .     .     upon  the  xxv.  of  this  instant. 

Dec.  26,  1602. — Eftir  ye  invocation  of  Godes  holie  nam  be  the  brethren  of  the  presby- 
trie  of  Paslay  assemblit  whin,  the  kirk  of  the  same,  and  hereing  Mr.  Ro'  Sterling  intrat  the 
contravertit  head  of  Religion  touching  the  alledgit  soverane  authoritie  of  the  bishope  of 
Rome  over  the  hale  Kirk  ;  eftir  that  the  sad  Mr.  Rot.  had  sustent  the  defence  of  the  part 
negative  of  the  sad  question,  and  the  remanent  brethren  had  in  modestie  approven  the  same, 
they  hev  appoyntit  Mr.  Johne  Lang  to  mak  the  exercise,  Mr.  Thomas  Hamilton  to  eik  to 
him,  the  penult  of  this  instant. 

On  March  10,  1G03,  Mr.  Eobert  Stirling  is  appointed  along  with 
others  to  help  Mr.  Daniel  Cunynghame,  Minister  of  Kilmacolin,  to  deal 
with  the  Countess  of  Glencairn,  who  was  accused  of  "continual  absence 
and  byding  fra  the  kirk  "  ;  her  absence  was  taken  to  mean  that  she  was  at 
heart  a  Roman  Catholic. 

Between  the  10th  March  and  the  14th  April  following,  Robert 
Stirling  must  have  died  or  demitted  his  charge,  as  under  the  latter  date 
we  find  the  following  entry  : — 

Ap.  14,  1603.— The  parochiners  of  Kilbarquhan  giving  in  yare  supplication  to  be 
supplect  (supplied)  be  ye  brethren  of  ye  presbyterie  of  ye  benefit  of  ye  word  untill  yey 
war  providit  w"'  ane  ordinar  pastor.  It  is  ordaint  yt.  everie  minister  in  ye  presbyterie, 
day  about,  suld  supple  yera.  conform  to  yare  suit  and  Mr.  Patrick  Hamiltoun  to  begin 
the  next  day. 

The  vacancy  was  a  prolonged  one,  lasting  for  nearly  two  years,  and 
during  it,  as  we  have  already  mentioned,  the  Vicar  assumed  the  duties  of 
Reader  and  moral  policeman. 

Whether  it  was  the  Vicar's  great  zeal  or  a  special  laxity  of  morals 
which  prevailed  at  this  time  we  cannot  say,  but  Kilbarchan  was  making 
for  itself  an  unenviable  reputation  by  reason  of  the  number  of  cases  of 
uncleanness  which  Hamilton  found  it  to  be  his  duty  to  report  to  the 
Presbytery.  The  sentences  to  which  the  delinquents  had  to  submit  were 
far  from  contemptible,  e.f/.,  one   woman — it   was   a  particularly  flagrant 


Jly.  26,  IGO-i. —  .  .  .  was  ordeint  to  remove  the  said  sclander  by  kowing  of  hir 
heid  and  standing  sax  Soundayes  in  the  jogges  frae  the  iirst  bell  to  the  thrid,  and  that  in 
hir  lynnen  clothes,  and  then  that  she  cum  to  the  place  of  publictk  repentance  within  the 
Kirk  of  Kilbarchean  and  ther  mak  hir  repentance  publictklie  xii.  Soundayes,  as  also  the 

said  Jonet  fand  J G ,  elder,  burges  of  Paisley  caution  under  the  payne  of  fourtie 

lib.  (£40)  for  abstinence  in  tyme  to  cum. 

H 


58  KILBAECHAN. 

Her  partner  in  guilt  appears  before  the  Presbytery  in  "  his  lynnein 
clothes." 

Aug.  16,  1604. —  .  .  .  and  for  removing  of  the  said  sclander  thes  injunctiouns 
was  prescryved  unto  him,  viz.,  that  in  case  he  redemit  not  him  selff  fra  the  handis  of  the 
civil  magistrat  within  the  Session  of  Kilbarchen  with  ane  .  .  .  sowme  as  they  sail 
injoyne  to  him,  he  sail  stand  four  severall  Soundayes  in  the  jogges  in  his  lynnein  clothes, 
with  his  heid  and  beard  schavein,  and  then  mak  his  repentance  in  his  lynnein  clothes  six 

Soundayes  within  the  said  Kirk,  for  fulfilling  of  the  quhilkis  injunctiouns  David  H 

burges  of  Paisley  became  cautioun  under  the  payne  of  twentie  lib.  (£20)  as  also  for 
abstinence  in  tyme  to  cum,  and  the  said  Alex,  [the  culprit]  becam  willing  to  releiff  the  said 
David. 

In  some  parishes  the  Kirk  Session  kept  in  stock  two  or  three  habits 
of  linen  or  sackcloth  which  were  lent  to  delinquents  when  making-  their 
public  repentance. 

On  November  17,  1603,  the  Vicar  having  reported  that — 

Jhone  Knox  of  Eamferly  had  profanit  ye  Sabbeth  and  Kirk  of  ye  Lord  be  evill  wordes 
and  tumults  (arising)  yareupon  w''  in  ye  said  Kirk, 

is  ordained  to  summon  him  to  the  Presbytery.  Knox  disregards  the  first 
summons,  but  thinks  it  best  to  obey  the  second;  and  so  compeai-ing  and 
confessing  he  is  ordained — 

Dec.  19,  1G03. —  .  .  .  upon  Sonday  com  aucht  dayes  in  ye  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan 
in  ye  presence  of  ye  congregation  eftir  sermon  maid  be  Mr.  William  Brisbane,  to  com  out  of 
bis  awn  seat  and  yreftir  upon  his  knees  confes  his  offence  to  God  for  profanation  of  ye 
Sabboth  and  oversicht  of  his  deutie  to  ye  vicar  and  elders  as  said  is,  w""  promeis  to  satisfie 
farder  as  ye  presbitrie  sail  think  expedient. 

A  much  more  serious  crime  was  laid  to  the  charge  of  perhaps  the 
same  person — 

August  2,  IGOl. — The  quhilk  day  the  brethrein  being  informit  of  the  filthie  fact  of 
murther  committit  be  the  laird  of  Kamfarlie  in  slaying  of  his  father  brother.  Therfoir  the 
brethrein  directed  Mr.  Daniell  Cunynghame  and  Mr.  Patrick  Hamiltoun  comissioneris  to  deal 
and  confer  with  the  said  Laird  of  Eamfarlie  quhither  if  they  find  any  signes  of  trew  repen- 
tance in  him  for  the  said  sclander,  and  to  report  the  same  to  the  presbyterie. 

Nothing  more  is  heard  of  the  matter  ;  perhaps  the  slander  was  baseless. 

Assault  to  the  effusion  of  blood  when  committed  on  the  Sabbath 
Day  came  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical  courts  : — 

6th  Nov.,  1604. — The  quhilk  day  compeared  Ro'  Cochran  in  the  parochein  of  .  .  . 
as  he  was  lawfullie  sumoned  and  being  accused  of  hurting  ane  man  upon  the  Sabboth  day 
within  the  parochein  of  Kilbarchan  ....  Therefor  was  sumoned  apud  acta  to  com- 
pear before  the  6  of  Decemb.  nixt. 


KILBAECHAN   AFTER  THE  REFOKMATION.  59 

20th  Dec,  1604. — The  quhilk  day  .appeared  Ro'  Cochran,  lyk  as  he  was  lawfullie 
sumoned  to  that  effect,  and  being  accused  for  shedding  bloode  upon  the  Sabboth  day  within 
the  parochein  of  Kilbarquhan.  The  brethrein  remittd  the  tryell  and  taking  evidence  with 
the  said  mater  to  the  session  of  Kilbarquhan,  and  ordeins  Mr.  Patrik  Hamilton  to  concur 
with  the  said  session  in  tryell  of  the  same. 

Scottish  Protestantism  viewed  with  peculiar  abhorrence  all  attempts 
to  celebrate,  either  by  religious  services  or  by  general  festivity,  the  Saints' 
Days  and  Holy  Days  observed  by  the  rest  of  Christendom.  The  laity 
did  not  at  once  follow  the  clergy  in  this  ;  they  may  have  felt  that  they 
were  being  robbed  of  some  of  the  pleasures  due  to  them.  In  1603, 
when  Gavin  Hamilton  was  all  they  had  for  a  minister,  and  when  they 
expected  to  escape  unchallenged,  some  Kilbarchan  men  attempted  to 
revive  the  keeping  of  Christmas.  They  were  reckoning  without  their 
host.     The  vicar  heard  of  it  and  reported  the  grave  offence  : — 

Jan.  19,  1604. — The  Presbitrie  being  informit  be  thare  brother  Gawane  Hamilton, 
vicar  of  Kilbarchan,  that  James  Andro,  Rob.  Hendersoun,  Jhone  Hutchestoun,  James 
Hutchestoun,  Jhone  Haw,  James  Jamstoun,  Patrick  Knox,  James  Crawfurd,  Jhone  King, 
and  William  Dougall,  usit  superstitious  playes  a  lytle  before  Zuill  in  ye  day  callit  Zuil- 
evening,  come  throw  ye  clachan  of  Kilbarchan  making  oppen  proclamation  and  gevin  oppin 
libertie  to  all  men  to  tak  pastyme  for  ye  space  of  aucht  dayes  as  also  usit  superstitious 
playes  upon  ye  2G  of  December  at  ye  Corsford  and  gave  yame  selfis  to  .  .  .  and  drink- 
ing. The  brethrein  ordanit  all  yc  foresaids  persons  to  be  sumond  to  ye  next  presbiterie 
day  be  thare  brother  Mr.  Patrik  Hamiltoun  and  Gawane  Hamiltoun,  vicar  at  Kilbarchan. 

Feb.  2.  1604. —  ....  they  are  ordanit  to  comper  before  ye  civill  magistrat,  ye 
laird  of  Craigends,  .  .  .  whom  ye  brethren  requestis  to  punish  yame  civillie  in  body 
and  geir,  or  baith,  as  he  thinks  best,  and  before  ye  session  of  Kilbarchan. 

On  March  1st,  the  offenders  came  up  before  the  ecclesiastical  court 
for  sentence.  The  record,  however,  is  incomplete,  but  it  appears  that 
making  the  proclamation  was  considered  the  graver  offence.  Those  con- 
victed of  this  were  "  to  do  their  repentance  in  ye  publick  place  in  quhyt 
habites  " ;  while  those  "  who  usit  superstitious  games  in  ye  Crosfurd. 

were  to  do  yare  repentance  in  yare  awn  clothes ; "  and  "  Patrick 
Knox  because  of  his  humble  offer  of  obedience  sail  mak  confession  of 
offence  in  his  awne  seat."  Two  offenders  who  had  not  appeared  had  yet 
to  be  dealt  with,  William  Dougall  and  Alexander  Henderson — the  name 
of  the  latter  does  not  appear  in  the  complaint  of  January  19.  Dougall 
had  withstood  the  summons,  thrice  repeated,  to  appear  before  the  Presby- 
tery, but  he  succumbed  under  the  influence  of  the  first  prayer  and  the 
threat  that  the  lairds  of  Craigends  and  of  Houston  will  have  him  expelled 
from  the  bounds  (April  12). 


60  KILBARCHAN. 

On  May  Isfc  both  appear.  Dougall  is  accused  of  going  through 
"the  kirkjaird  with  ane  drawn  quhinger  in  his  hand."  He  confesses  that 
he  was  "in  company  with  the  pypeirs  and  danceris,"  and  is  sentenced  to 
make  his  repentance  "  in  his  lynnein  clothes  twa  Sabboth  dayes  ; "  and  a 
burgess  of  Paisley  is  found  to  give  security,  viz.,  £20,  that  he  will  undergo 
this  sentence  and  abstain  from  similar  misbehaviour  in  time  to  come. 
Alexander  Henderson  confessed  to  "  pyping  upon  the  Sabboth  day  and 
therby  withdrawing  the  people  from  the  kirk."  He  is  allowed  to  make 
his  repentance  in  his  own  clothes. 

The  superstitious  Christmas  pastime  of  the  Kilbarclian  people — 
piping  on  Sunday  and  going  through  the  kirkyaiid  with  drawn  whingers 
— was  not  so  innocent  and  childish  as  that  indulged  in  by  William  Aitken 
at  Lochwinnoch.      This  worthy  when  accused — 

Ap.  12,  1604. —  .  .  .  of  useing  superstitious  pastyme  by  disguysing  himself  upoun 
the  last  of  December,  confessit  that  upoun  the  said  night  he  put  his  cloke  about  his  waist 
in  forme  of  wemenis  clothing,  that  he  put  his  sark  above  his  doublet  and  his  naipkin  upoun 
his  face. 

He  was  sentenced  for  this  frolic  to  stand  for  two  days  in  the  public 
place  of  repentance,  clad  in  sackcloth,  and  to  find  security  in  £20  for  his 
orderly  behaviour  in  future. 

The  prolonged  vacancy  in  Kilbarchan  (April  1603 — January  1605) 
during  which  the  vicar  was  so  diligent  and  zealous  in  at  least  part  of  his 
duties,  was  largely  owing  to  certain  suspicions  about  the  moral  character 
of  the  first  presentee,  Mr.  Eobert  Henderson.  Henderson  had  in  1603 
obtained  a  presentation  from  the  patron  James  (Hamilton),  Lord  Aber- 
corn.  The  leaders  of  opinion  in  Kilbarchan  Parish  apparently  believed 
that  he  was  guilty  of  the  sin  laid  to  his  charge — fornication.  The 
Presbytery  examined  witnesses  during  at  least  six  meetings  (April  28 — 
November  24,  1603),  trying  hard  to  discover  whether  there  was  any  real 
foundation  for  the  rumour.  Again  and  again  "the  parochiners  of  Kilbar- 
chan," represented  on  the  first  occasion,  and  perhaps  on  subsequent  ones 
too,  by  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends,  William  Wallace  of  John- 
stone, and  John  Semple  of  Weitlands,  appeared  before  the  reverend  court 
craving  that  Henderson  "  sail  be  repellit  and  ane  qualifit  pastore  be 
plantit  at  ye  kirk."  The  Presbytery  at  length — February  16,  1604 — 
found  Henderson  clear  of  the  slander  against  him.  A  month  previously, 
however,  January  19,  1604,  the  presentee  had  given  over  his  presentation 
in  favour  of  the  Presbytery — had,  in  other  words,  put  himself  entirely 
into  the  court's   hands.        Considering   the    amount    of  suspicion    which 


KILBARCHAN   AFTER   THE   REFORMATION.  61 

attached  to  Henderson,  it  was  well  that  the  Presbytery  did  not  proceed 
with  his  settlement  in  Kilbarchan. 

Tn  August  16,  1604,  the  patron  issued  a  new  presentation  in  favour 
of  Mr.  Andeo  Hamilton  to  the  church  and  vicarag-e  of  Kilbarchan.  The 
Presbytery,  when  proceeding  to  put  him  on  trial,  indicated  that  he  must 
profess  adherence  to  their  Act  of  April  26,  1604.  This  Act  deserves  to 
be  quoted : — 

April  20,  1604. — The  brethren  of  the  presbyterie  findinf;  by  experience  that  mony 
young  men  aspyres  to  the  ministerie  and  benefices  vacand  within  the  presbyterie,  being  of 

verie  many  giftes,  etc Thairfor  it  is  concludit,  That  none  herefter  sould  be 

admittit  to  the  pnblick  exercise  but  such  wha  wald  bind  them  selfis  judicially  in  the  bukes 
of  presbyterie  that  they  sould  nather  use  nor  seek  ane  presentation  to  any  benefice  within 
the  presbytrie  without  ther  special}  advyse  :  and  that  they  be  obedient  to  the  actes  of 
generall  and  synodall  assemblies  and  to  the  actes  of  the  said  presbyterie,  and  namelie  that 
the  act  of  the  generall  assemblie  anent  ambitione,  it  have  place,  and  be  practised  heirefter 
within  the  said  presbyterie. 

Meanwhile  texts  were  prescribed  to  the  presentee  on  which  to  write 
sermons.  His  course  of  trials  was,  however,  interrupted  by  his  venturing 
to  defy  the  Pi-esbytery  regarding  the  Act.  He  had  his  presentation  to 
rely  on — he  liad  Lord  Abercorn  at  his  back.  But  the  Presbytery  of 
Paisley  could  not  be  defied  in  the  seventeenth  century  with  impunity — 
and  so  Mr.  Andrew  learned.  He  had  to  make  an  abject  submission.  On 
October  4,  1604,  he  appeared  in  all  humility  confessing  his  presumptuous 
conduct  in  refusing  to  be  obedient  to  the  Presbytery  ;  he  ottered  to  sub- 
scribe the  Act  though  he  had  refused  to  do  it  before,  and  he  delivered  and 
laid  down  to  the  Presbytery  his  presentation  obtained  from  Lord  Aber- 
corn to  the  rectory  and  parsonage  of  Kilbarchan,  acknowledging  that  his 
right  and  title  to  the  said  kirk  was  to  be  discerned  by  the  Presbytery 
without  appeal  from  their  judgment.  The  Presbytery  could  afford  to  be 
mao-nanimous  with  Mr.  Andrew  since  he  had  come  to  his  senses  ;  they 
thouo-ht  good  to  proceed  by  entering  on  further  tiial  of  his  life  and 
doctrine,  and  if  they  found  him  qualified  to  admit  him  to  be  pastor  at 
Kilbarchan.  He  liad  many  more  texts  and  trials  prescribed,  but  there 
was  no  further  difficulty.  His  edict  is  reported  as  read  on  December  6, 
1604;  and  on  January  6,  1605,  Mr.  Andro  Knox  (Paisley)  and  Mr. 
William  Wallace  (Eastwood)  repaired  to  the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan  and 
"inaugurated  him."  Though  Mr.  Andrew  Hamilton  thus  became  minister 
of  Killjarchan,  he  was,  as  regards  stipend,  simply  successor  apparent  to 
Gavin  Hamilton,  the  Yicar. 


€2  KILBAECHAN. 

Andrew  Hamilton,  Minister  of  Kilbarchan  [1605-1646],  belonged 
to  Millhouse  in  Kilbride.  He  received  bis  education  at  Edinburgh 
University,  then  an  infant  institution,  having  been  founded  in  1583  and 
known  then  as  the  College  of  King  James.  He  graduated  A.M.  in  1599. 
At  the  time  of  his  settlement  in  Kilbarcban  he  would  be  twenty-five 
or  twenty-six  years  of  age.  The  first  evidence  we  have  of  his  ministerial 
diligence  is  in  his  reporting  to  tbe  Presbytery  that — 

June  5,  1605. — W"  Wallace,  auld  Laird  of  Jonstoun,  and  Mgaret  Houstoun,  Lady 
Achnems,  had  absented  themselves  from  communion. 

This  in  the  eyes  of  the  Presbytery  was  a  serious  offence,  for  the 
absentees  were  regarded  "  as  adversaries  of  the  treuth  of  God."  It 
appeared  however  that  their  absence  was  due  to  carelessness,  and 
upon  their  promising  to  communicate  on  the  first  opportunity,  the  case 
against  them  was  not  proceeded  with.      The  very  next  year — 

July  3,  1606. — Jon  Knox  of  Ramfarlie,  .  .  .  Muir  of  Rowallan,  younger,  W"  "Wallace 
of  Johnestoun,  W"'  Semple  of  Bruntscheilis,  are  accused  of  not  communicating. 

The  reasons  they  give  for  omitting  so  plain  a  duty  are  various  and 
peculiar  : — William  Semple  says  that  he  abstained  from  the  sacrament 
because  he  was  being  "  slandered  by  Jon  Mchell  in  Kilbarquhan  who  was 
using  against  him  unreverend  languages"  (July  3,  1606)  ;  John  Knox 
abstained  "  because  of  the  slander  he  lay  under  for  the  slaughter  of  his 
father's  brother  which  was  not  yet  removed,  nor  he  agreed  with  the  party, 
which  he  hoped  would  be  shortly  "  (July  17,  1606);  Mure  of  Ptowallan, 
after  being  summoned  three  times,  and  admonished  more  than  once, 
appears  before  the  Presbytery  (October  13,  1606)  and  says  that  "  he  com- 
municated in  Kilmarnok,  where  his  residence  is,  more  frequent ; "  but  he 
is  told  that  he  should  communicate  at  Kilbarchan  too,  when  he  happens  to 
be  there  at  communion  time.  The  process  against  William  Wallace  is  a 
long  one.  It  turns  out  that,  besides  not  communicating,  he  does  not 
frequent  the  hearing  of  the  Word  and  that  he  has  doubts  regarding  "  ye 
treuth  of  God  presently  professt  in  Scotland  and  established  be  his 
Majestie's  lawis."     The  brethren,  on  understanding  that, — 

he  was  not  fully  resolved  in  sum  poynts  of  relligion,  .  .  .  appoynt  some  of  their 
number  to  confer  with  him  and  to  informs  him  in  ye  grounds  of  trew  religioun  and  heidins 
quharof  he  doubted     .     .     .     and  to  report  yr.  diligence  in  that  behalf  every  presby.  day. 

The  Popish  leanings  of  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Abercorn  and  their 
household  called  for  a  good  deal  of  attention  from  the  Minister  of  Kilbar- 


KILBAECHAN   AFTER   THE   REFORMATION.  65 

chan,  this,  of  course,  because  Blackstone,  one  of  the  Earl's  seats,  was  in 
his  parish.  One  cannot  help  remarking  on  the  execrable  taste  of  the 
Earl.  His  religious  feelings  may  have  been  sincere  enough,  but  how  could 
he  batten  on  the  spoils  of  the  old  overthrown  Church,  act  the  part  of  the 
patron  of  many  Protestant  parishes,  and  at  the  same  time  claim  adherence 
to  Eome.  Like  many  another,  he  had  probably  discovered  that  profession 
is  easier  and  cheaper  than  practice.  Retainers  of  the  Abercorn  family — 
Thomas  and  Claud  Algeo,  Isobel  Mowatt,  Francis  Leslie,  Mr.  Robert  Pend- 
reiche,  Mr.  James  Crauford  (the  latter  two  probably  Roman  Catholic  chap- 
lains)— and  the  Countess  herself,  kept  Mr.  Andrew  Hamilton  and  his 
apparitor,  John  Wilson,  in  employment  for  about  two  and  a  half  years. 
The  minister  must  have  found  it  to  be  an  exceedingly  difficult  and  deli- 
cate task  to  interfere  with  the  family  of  the  nobleman  to  whose  favour  he 
owed  his  living.  He  cites  the  recalcitrant  Blackstone  household  from  the 
pulpit  three  times — sometimes  John  Wilson  cites  them  by  fixing  a  notice  on 
the  door  of  their  house  and  coming  avvay;^  three  times  he  publicly  admon- 
ishes them,  but  in  their  absence  ;  three  times  he  prays  for  them  in  public; 
and  all  that  is  left  for  him  to  do  after  this  is  to  excommunicate  them.  The 
other  processes  were  trifling — excommunication  entailed  sei'ious  incon- 
veniences on  those  upon  whom  the  ban  was  pronounced.  Influence  was 
apparently  brought  to  bear  on  poor  Hamilton,  and  he  tried  to  stop  short 
of  that.  It  is  also  doubtful  whether  James  Law,  the  archbishop,  was  quite 
as  ready  as  he  should  have  been  to  supply  the  minister  with  the  documents 
necessary.  On  being  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  to  proceed  to  excom- 
munication, Hamilton  did  not  do  as  he  was  bidden.  He  absented  himself 
from  the  Presbytery,  knowing  that  if  he  wei-e  present  he  wovdd  be  ex- 
pected to  report  progress.  The  Presbytery  feels  called  upon  to  exercise 
its  authority  ; — 


'  John  Wilson  was  a  discreet  man,  quite  different  from  George  Ramsay,  the  Presbytery's 
officer,  who,  instead  of  modestly  fixing  the  notice  on  the  door  and  coming  away,  interviewed 
Claud  Algeo.  Instead  of  receiving  Ramsay  with  that  reverent  and  modest  behaviour  his  errand 
merited,  the  said  Claud  "  iramediatlie,  be  the  allowance  and  approbation  of  his  said  maister,  sett 
upon  the  compleaner  and  shamefullie  and  unmercifullie  invaidit  and  persewed  him  of  his  lyffe, 
threw  him  to  the  ground  under  his  feete,  and  with  his  whole  force  and  strenth  punsed  him  with  his 
hands  and  feete,  birsed  his  bowells  and  intraills,  and  with  his  falded  nifles  dang  and  dadded  him 
upoun  the  eyes  to  the  hazard  and  perell  of  his  ej-es  and  losse  of  his  sight,  and  gave  him  manie  blae 
and  bloodie  straikes  till  he  fell  a-swowning  ;  "  and  Claud,  the  master,  "  most  kyndelie  and  cheer- 
fuUie  ressaved  him  (Algeo)  allowing  and  approveing  all  that  he  did." — Eeg.  Priv.  Con.,  5  Ju., 
1628. 


€4  KILBARCHAN. 

May  8,  1628. — The  qlk  day  the  brethren  onlein  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton,  minister  at  Kil- 
barq",  to  excommunicate  Isso"  Mowate  betwixt  and  the  next  presbyterie  day  under  the 
pane  of  suspension  and  that  according  to  the  warrand  of  the  Synod  holden  in  Glasgow  the 
.  .  day  of  Aprile  preceding,  ordaning  likewise  that  the  said  Mr.  Andro  shuld  come  to  the 
churche  of  Paslay  upon  a  Sunday  the  ellevint  of  this  instant,  and  preach  there  the  said  day, 
and  after  sermon  publickly  confe.ss  his  oversight  and  negligence  in  not  excommunicating 
the  Countess  of  Abercorn  as  he  was  ordained  both  by  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow  and  presby- 
terie of  Paslay. 

There  is  a  good  deal  more  to  the  same  effect,  and  Hamilton  found  it 
was  best  for  himself  to  do  as  the  Presbytery  ordered.  Twelve  years  later 
the  same  badgering  process  is  repeated,  the  victims  being  Lord  Semple, 
his  mother,  and  her  maid,  Margaret  Abercrombie  ;  most  of  the  unpleasant 
duties  on  this  occasion  fell  to  Mr.  Alexander  Hamilton,  minister  of  Loch- 
winnoch. 

Mr.  Andrew  Hamilton  seems  to  liave  been  a  man  who  was  ready  to 
spare  himself  all  the  trouble  he  could.  On  the  31st  December,  1629,  a 
grave  breach  of  discipline  is  reported  from  Kilbarchau,  and  Mr.  Andrew 
"is  ordeined  to  tak  tryall  therein;"  on  January  14,  1630,  he  reports  that 
"he  had  used  diligence  anent  the  slander.  .  .  .  but  could  find  little 
tryall  ;  "  the  brethren  "  ordeine  him  to  Insist  in  tryall  ;  "  and  at  seven 
subsequent  meetings  at  which  he  reports  despairingly,  they  keep  on 
"ordeining  him  to  insist."  Their  perseverance  met  with  success,  and  the 
case  in  one  stag-e  or  another  engaged  the  attention  of  the  brethren  at 
their  fortnightly  meetings  for  about  two  years.  The  power  of  the  Presby- 
tery lay  in  its  enormous  capacity  for  persisting. 

Another  expedient  to  which  the  presbytery  had  recourse  for 
strengthening  their  rather  weak-kneed  brother  reminds  one  of  the 
compurgatores  of  Anglo-Saxon  law.  In  the  case  of  a  misdemeanant, 
William  Patesoune  by  name,  Mr.  Andro  is  "  ordeined.  ...  to  use  all 
diligence  be  inqueist  of  the  most  famous  men  and  of  good  report  w''  in  his 
parochin  for  tryall  of  the  said  slander"  [February  7,  1633].  On  14th 
March,  Mr.  Andro  reported  that  he  "  had  given  obedience  to  the  ordinance 
.  anent  inquisition  making  of  the  slander  upon  William  Patesoune, 
and  that  he  had  convened  a  great  number  out  of  wch  he  w*"  advise  of  his 
sessioune  had  chosen  fyiftein  men  of  good  report  who  all  in  one  voice  had 
deponed    that    to    their    knowledge    the    said    William    Patesoune    was 


If  what  Lady  Auchinames  said  of  the  minister  was  true,  that  "he 
went  to  football  on  Sabbath  after  sermon,"  it  is  somewhat  surprising  that 
he  had  the  effrontery  to  report  his  parishioners  for  Sabbath  desecration: — 


KILE  ARC  HAN   AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  65 

Jy.  2,  1607. — The  qlk  day  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton  delaited  Jo"  Hall  parochiner  of  Kil- 
barquhan  for  prophanatiouii  of  ye  Sabbath  day  by  keiping  of  ane  grein  everie  Sabboth  at 
efternone  with  pyping  and  danceing.     .     .     . 

Aug.  22,  1633. — The  qlk  day  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton,  minister  at  Kilbarq",  compleined 
of  a  certane  abuse  and  profanatione  of  the  Sabbath  by  ane  W"  Greenleis,  paro'  of  Paslay 
and  servit'  to  James  Wallace  in  Lonebank. 

Nov.  13,  1634. —  .  .  .  there  was  some  profaners  of  the  Sabbath  his  paro'',  who 
were  disobedient  to  his  Session.     ...     by  name  Jon.  Fleming  and  Jo"  Miller. 

"Humphray  Barbo'"'  is  reported,  June  9,  1636,  for  "killing  (kilning)  and 
dressing  malt,"  and  " Jo°  King,"  June  28,  1637,  "for  dressing  linning 
cloth  "  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

On  10th  March,  1643,  Hamilton  desires  that  some  (members  of 
Presbytery)  be  "  sent  to  his  parochin  as  commissionare'  to  designe  his 
mans  and  gleib.  Therefore  the  Laird  of  Houstoun,  Duchall,  Mr.  Matthew 
Brisbane  and  Mr.  Jo"  Hamiltoun  are  ordeined  to  that  effect."  What 
the  difficulty  was  we  do  not  know — nor  yet  if  they  succeeded. 

On  October  19,  1643,  Mr.  Andro  is  absent  from  the  Presbytery — it 
is  known,  it  is  said,  by  the  brethren  that  he  is  infirm.  His  infirmity 
seems  to  have  increased,  for  when  it  is  reported  that  "Margaret  Allasoune, 
spouse  to  James  Glassfuird,  gardiner  in  Blackston,  is  popishly  affected,  her 
case  is  remitted  to  be  dealt  with  by  Mr.  Andro  Hamiltoun  and  Mr. 
Eobert  Brisbane,"  as  if  he  needed  a  colleague  [May  16,  1644];  and  though 
he  is  appointed  on  the  15th  August,  1644,  to  handle  the  controverted 
head  De  libero  arbitrio — it  is  added,  "  or  if  he  be  not  able  through 
infirmitie  and  weakness  that  Mr.  James  Glendinning  supplie  and  handle 
the  poynt,  De  jJeccato  originali."  During  the  year  1645  Hamilton  was 
frequently  absent  from  Presbytery  meetings  ;  he  seems  to  have  been  still 
alive  on  18th  January,  1646,  but  to  have  died  before  the  26th  of 
March,  when  Mr.  James  Montgomerie  of  VVeitlands  attended  the  Presby- 
tery and  produced  a  petition  subscribed  "  be  a  great  number  of  the 
heritors  and  elders  of  the  paroch  of  Kilbarchan  desyring  Mr.  James 
Clandineine,  now  preacher  there,  to  be  recomendit  be  the  presbitrie  to  the 
Earl  of  Laudirdaill  patrone,  to  be  presented  minister  of  that  kirke  for 
respitt  of  the  vacancie  yrof  hi  death  of  umqll.  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton, 
minister." 

The  period  dealt  with  In  this  chapter,  1560  to  1646,  and  especially 
the  latter  half  of  it,  corresponding  to  Mr.  Andrew  Hamilton's  incumbency, 
is  an  epoch  of  great  importance  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  the 
country.  Kilbarchan  did  not  indeed  suffer  appreciably  when  King  James 
VI.,  with  his  shambling  gait,  ceased  to  be  as  familiar  a  figure  on  the  High 

I 


66  KILBARCHAN. 

Street  of  Edinburgh  as  the  Lord  Provost  is  to-day — and  when  lie  had  to 
stop  paying  his  unceremonious  and  not  infrequent  visits  to  various  dis- 
tricts of  his  narrow  reahii  ;  but  at  this  time  the  parishioners  were  made  to 
feel,  as  they  never  felt  before,  religious  restraint  as  the  iron  grip  of  Pres- 
byterianism  tightened  its  hold  on  the  country.  The  rather  luxuriant 
crop  of  real  social  evils  which  it  was  the  endeavour  of  Kilbarchan  Kirk 
Session  and  Paisley  Presbytery  to  uproot,  was  due  perhaps  not  so  much 
to  the  censorship  of  morals  under  the  Roman  Church  being  unduly  lax, 
but  rather  to  public  opinion  having  become  weakened  and  debased  while 
the  seat  of  authority  in  religion  was  being  slowly  shifted.  Kilbarchan 
WHS  perhaps  in  no  respect  worse  than  its  neighbours — but  certainly  the 
.sin  of  adultery  wos  surprisingly  prevalent,  and  some  of  the  cases  were 
particularly  heartless.  The  oath  of  purgation,  in  which  was  employed 
language  of  surpassing  awfulness,  seems  to  have  been  administered  with- 
out due  care  and  to  have  been  taken  with  unbecoming  light-heartedness  ; 
but  perhaps  it  was  owing  to  ignorance  rather  than  to  defiance  that 
some  thus  escaped  the  censure  of  man  by  imprecating  the  justice  of  God. 
Often  have  the  ministers  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
been  scoffed  at  and  even  upbraided  for  their  grandmotherly  intervention, 
for  their  inquisitorial  methods,  for  their  prudery  in  public  and  tlieir 
indelicacy  in  the  privacy  of  Kirk  Session  and  Presbytery,  but  it  is  due  to 
them  to  say  that  it  was  they  who  brought  public  opinion  the  sooner  to 
maturity  and  made  it,  all  the  earlier,  an  instrument  for  enforcing  common 
honesty  in  the  dealings  of  men  with  women.  And  since  it  is  in  a  great 
measure  to  them  that  we  owe  the  social  order  which  prevails  to-day,  is  it 
just,  we  ask,  for  us  to  scorn  "  the  base  degrees  by  which  we  did  ascend"  ? 
During  this  period  the  Church  was  sometimes  Presbyterian  in  its 
form  of  government,  sometimes  Episcopal — at  least  in  name.  To  the 
Scottish  people  Presbytery  is  hallowed  because  it  afforded  the  men  of  that 
time  a  defensil)le  position.  In  their  extremity  they  seem  to  have  lighted 
upon  it.  It  allowed  them  to  cherish  without  reserve  the  antipathies  Avith 
which  they  were  saddled  and  to  offer  resistance  to  tenets  they  rejoudiated. 
It  is  a  position  strong  by  nature,  if  not  also  by  Scripture  ;  it  has  been 
rendered  by  art  doubly  strong,  perhaps  even  impregnable  ;  but  time  will 
show.  They  did  not  deliberately  choose  it ;  they  were  simply  compelled 
to  seek  refuge  in  it.  It  has  largely  moulded  the  national  character,  and 
imposed  on  the  nation  a  mode  of  thought.  The  weak  Episcopacy,  from 
time  to  time  established,  had  never  any  effect  for  good  or  bad  in  form  of 
disciphne  in  Kilbarchan.     Andrew  Hamilton  was  just  the  type  of  clergy- 


KILBARCHAN  AFTER  THE  REFORMATION.  67 

man  who  stood  in  need  of  a  bishop's  superintendence  ;  but  thouijh 
three  churchmen,  Spottiswood,  Law  and  Lindsay,  successively  occupied 
the  See  of  Glasgow  during  his  incumbency,  there  is  no  evidence  that  any 
of  them  ever  came  to  Kilbarchan  or  interfered  with  the  minister  in  the 
discharge  or  neglect  of  his  duty.  When  his  conduct  called  for  reproof, 
expostulation  came  from  the  Presbytery,  and  the  archbishop's  authority 
was  used  only  as  something  with  which  to  threaten. 

It  was  during  Hamilton's  time  that  the  National  Covenant,  a  docu- 
ment pregnant  with  events  in  Scottish  history,  had  its  origin.  It  is 
engrossed  in  full  in  the  Records  of  Paisley  Presbytery  (Mar.  14,  1G39). 
When  questioned,  the  Minister  of  Kilbarchan  was  able  to  report  that 
none  within  his  parish  had  refused  to  sign  it  (Jan.  4,  1644),  but  he  does 
not  say  how  many,  or  if  any,  had  been  asked.  Then  too  were  instituted 
those  solemn  occasions  called  Fast  D:iys  ;  perhaps  they  were  too  fre- 
quently proclaimed,  bringing,  as  they  did,  opportunities  of  self-indulgence 
to  the  sluggard  as  well  as  welcome  seasons  of  devotion  to  the  pious. 

In  March,  1640,  intimation  was  made  from  the  various  pulpits  for- 
bidding piping  and  dancing  "at  mai'riage  brydeles."  Habbie  Simpson  was 
doubtless  dead  by  this  time,  but  a  piper,  by  name  John  Simpsoune,  was 
engaging  in  May,  1635,  the  unwelcome  attention  of  the  Presbytery  on  a 
charge  much  more  shameful  than  that  of  piping — for  a  sin  committed, 
however,  not  in  Kilbarchan,  but  in  Houston. 

If  we  give  any  credence  to  the  remarks  of  the  Lady  Auchinames, 
Andrew  Hamilton  was  far — perhaps  too  far — from  being  Puritanic  in  his 
conduct ;  yet  even  he  in  the  hands  of  his  sterner  brethren  became  an 
instrument,  though  not  a  very  efficient  one,  for  the  correction  of  Kilbar- 
chan morals  and  the  repression  of  Kilbarchan  gaiety.  Perhaps  had  he 
done  the  former  part  of  his  duty  more  fearlessly  and  the  latter  less 
stringently  he  might  have  been  more  respectfully  and  not  less  kindly 
remembered.  His  ashes  probably  rest  beside  those  of  many  of  his  Ptoman 
Catholic  predecessors  and  of  at  least  five  of  his  successors,  though  no 
stone  marks  the  place,  at  the  west  door  of  the  old  Church  of  Kilbarchan. 


CHAPTER   V. 


The  Stirlings  and  their  Time — Latter  Half  of  the  Seventeenth 
Century. 

"A  peaceable,  '  solid  thinking,  solid-feeling,'  yet  withal  clear-sighted,  diligent,  and  conscientious  man, 
— alas  his  lot  turned  out  to  have  fallen  in  times  such  as  he  himself,  had  he  been  consulted  on  it,  would  by 
no  means  have  selected.  Times  of  controversy,  of  oppression  which  became  explosion  and  distraction  : 
instead  of  peaceable  preaching,  mere  raging,  battling,  soldiering  ;  universal  shedding  of  gall,  of  ink  and 
blood  :  very  troublous  times  ! " 

— T.  Carlyle  on  Robert  Baillie  :  Miscellaneous  Essays. 

Jambs  Glendinning — Locum  fenens  164C-9 — His  early  career — Unsuccessful  efforts  to  get  him 
presented — His  philanthropy — His  continued  interest  in  Kilbarchan — John  Stirling,  1549- 
62,1672-83 — A  clerical  family — Hia  brothers — "The  holy  groaner  " — Jiimes  Stirling,  author 
of  Naphtali — Hiding  the  Presbytery  Records — John's  conversion  and  early  difficulties — His 
nurse  and  foster-father — Hia  capabilities — Tri.als  for  license — Good  advice — Procedure  at  an 
ordination  250  years  ago — Kilbarchan  New  Manse — Disciplining  Engagers — Charmers  and  war- 
locks— The  minister  as  a  recruiting  officer — A  war  fund  long  ago — A  too  candid  parishioner — 
How  to  deal  with  papists — Keeping  Yule  at  Castle  Sempill — The  ecclesiastical  boycott — 
Ministers  kept  busy — Fasts — Parishioners  of  less  than  no  repute — Satan's  revenge — Week-day 
and  hall  preaching — How  the  Restoration  affected  Kilbarchan — Mr.  Stirling  as  an  "  outed  " 
minister,  1662-72 — A  spirited  minister's  wife — Mr.  Stirling  as  an  '■  indulged  "  minister,  1672-83 
— His  colleague — Loss  of  popularity — Conventicles  aa  rivals  to  church  services — Confusion  in 
discipline  cases — Lawburrows — The  Highland  Host  in  Kilbarchan — A  bland  minister — Por- 
tentous noise  in  churches — An  obstinate  schoolmaster — John  Stirling's  last  day's  work — His 
illness  and  death — Appreciations — James  Stirling's  incumbency,  1688-99 — His  early  piety — 
License,  call  and  ordination — The  meeting-house  and  the  church — Mr.  Stirling's  missions — 
Calls  to  Aberdeen  and  Barony  (Glasgow) — Deforcing  the  Presbytery  officer — Provision  for  a 
schoolmaster — Sons  of  Kilbarchan  ISIanse  in  high  places — Who  preached  to  Rob  Roy  I — 
Portents,  and  how  they  were  interpreted — The  Stirling  legacies. 

After  the  death  of  Hamilton,  and  until  the  settlement  of  Stirling,  a  period 
of  nearly  four  years  [1646-9],  tlie  Parish  of  Kilbarchan  enjoyed  the  ser- 
vices of  Mr.  James  Glendinning,  who  was,  however,  never  actually  Parish 
Minister.  This  gentleman  had  studied  at  St.  Leonard's  College,  St. 
Andrews,  and  had  taken  his  degree  there  after  1617.  He  was  possibly 
unable  under  patronage  to  get  a  church  at  home,  and  so  he  went  to  Ulster, 
where  there  was  .settled,  under  King  James  VI. 's  colon,ization  scheme  of 
1610,  a  large  Scottish  population.  According  to  a  diocesan  register  of 
Down  and  Connor,  he  occupied  in  1621  the  two-fold  post  of  Incumbent  of 


THE  STIRLINGS  AND   THEIR  TIME.  6» 

Coole  or  Carnmoney,  a  parish  between  Belfast  and  Carrickfergas,  and 
Lecturer  at  Carrickfergus.  The  church  of  Carnmoney  was  at  the  time  in 
ruins,  and  the  incumbency  may  have  been  a  sinecure,  but  as  lecturer  at 
Carrickfergus  "  he  continued  to  preach  with  great  applause  for  several 
years."  ^ 

He  left  Ireland  probably  on  account  of  the  political  troubles  there,  and 
arrived  within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley  in  1644.  Here  he 
got  plenty  of  work  to  do  ;  two  at  least  of  the  brethren  were  in  infirm  health, 
and  another  was  absent  ministering  to  the  Scottish  army  then  in  the 
field  :  and  Glendinning  was  sent  here  and  there  to  supply  the  vacant 
pulpits.  He  attended,  though  not  regularly,  the  meetings  of  Presbytery, 
and  took  his  turn  in  the  theological  and  religious  exercises  with  which  the 
court  opened  its  jjroceedings — handling  the  controverted  head,  preaching 
on  the  ordinary,  and  eiking  or  adding  when  another  expounded.  As  the 
Minister  was  in  weak  health,  Glendinning  may  have  frequently  occupied 
Kilbarchan  pulpit. 

On  March  26,  1646,  a  deputation  from  Kilbarchan  waited  on  the  Pres- 
bytery, and  craved  that  steps  should  be  taken  to  get  a  presentation  in 
favour  of  Glendinning  from  the  patron,  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale.  Similar 
deputations  appeared  again  and  again  (1646-7)  headed  by  Alexander 
Cuninghame  of  Craigends,  Patrick  Crawford  of  Auchinames,  Knox  of  Pian- 
furlie,  and  Mr.  James  Montgomerie  of  Weitlands,  ui-ging  for  a  settlement, 
and  sometimes,  though  not  always,  suggesting  Glendinning's  name.  On 
one  pretext  or  another  the  Presbytery  always  delayed  taking  any  decisive 
step,  but  enjoined  Glendinning  "  to  continue  the  work  in  Kilbarchan," 
where  he  was  apparently  settled  as  locum  tenens.  For  some  reason  or 
other — whether  it  was  that  Kilbarchan  got  tired  of  Glendinning  or  Glen- 
dinning got  tired  of  Kilbarchan  we  do  not  know — these  requests  after 
a  time  ceased.  It  was  not  indeed  until  the  right  of  presentation  passed 
from  Lauderdale  into  the  hands  of  the  Kirk  Session  in  1649  that  a  settle- 
ment was  actually  arrived  at.  To  the  harmony  which  existed  then  the 
unselfish  Glendinning  greatly  contributed. 

A  credible  tradition  maintains  that  Glendinning  was  well  and  widely 
known  for  his  philanthropy  and  "  gave  very  much  to  the  poor,  even  to  the 
straitening  of  himself  and  family."  His  name  is  mentioned  in  the  roundel 
in  welcome  of  Archbishop  Leighton  to  Glasgow,  composed  by  Francis 
Sempill  of  Beltrees  (1670)  :— 

'Reid's  Irelaiul,  \<,l  I.,  pp.  100,  432. 


70  KILBARCHAN. 

"  We  think  ye  do  right  weil, 

To  give  to  poor  your  winning, 
In  money,  malt  and  meal ; 
We  think  ye  do  right  weil ; 
We  never  knew  your  peel, 

But  old  Mr.  James  Glendinning  : 
We  think  ye  do  right  weil 

To  give  the  poor  your  winning." 

After  leaving  Kilbarchan  Glendinning  went  to  Largs,  where  he  was 
temporarily  settled  [1649-58],  and  thence  to  Eow,  where  he  was 
again  temporarily  settled  "  till  a  way  of  planting  a  minister  having  the 
Highland  language  be  obtained"  [1658-65].  He  seems  to  have  been 
"  outed  "  along  with  the  other  Presbyterian  ministers,  or,  at  all  events, 
threatened.  Wodrow,  in  his  list  of  ministers  who  suffered  in  1663, 
says  : — "  Mr.  James  Glendonyng  is  added  to  this  Presbytery  [Dumbarton] 
in  some  lists."  ^  His  name  also  occurs  in  connection  with  a  law  suit,  1st 
January,  1663,  instituted  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  William  Douglas,  advocate, 
for  reduction  of  a  decreet  of  1650.  An  augmentation  of  the  stipend  of 
Row  had  been  obtained,  but  through  a  mistalie  it  became  incident  on 
the  free  teind  belonging  to  Douglas,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Earl  of 
Abercorn  and  others."  After  Glendinning  had  left  Kilbarchan,  his  fre- 
quent Elijah-like  appearances  show  that  he  continued  to  take  a  deep 
interest  in  the  parish  and  his  protege  the  minister. 

/. — Joliii  StirliiKj,  1049-1673. 

Of  all  the  ministers  of  Kilbarchan,  Mr.  John  Stirling  was  probably 
the  most  celebrated.  His  fame,  however,  does  not  arise  from  any  special 
gifts  or  graces  which  he  displayed,  but  to  the  fact  that  he  was  called  upon 
to  suffer  in  the  great  religious  persecution  of  the  reign  of  Charles  H., 
and  that  he  acted  his  part  as  one  of  the  persecuted  not  unworthily.  He 
was  a  member  of  a  great  clerical  family,  for  the  Stirlings  enjoyed  just 
such  honour  and  reverence  as  the  Macleods  of  this  generation  command  ; 
and  his  son  James  was  privileged  to  contribute  to  Wodrow's  Analecta, 
a  shox't  but  discursive  biography  of  his  father  ;  so  that  we  know  more 
about  the  private  life  and  character  of  John  Stirling  than  we  know  of  any 
of  his  predecessors,  and  more  indeed  than  of  most  of  his  successors. 

1  Wodrow's  Hisfonj,  Vol.  I.,  p.  328.  =  Connell  on  Tithes,  Vol.  III.,  p.  147. 


THE   STIELIXGS  AXD  THEIR  TIME.  71: 

Reference  to  the  following  family  tree  will  save  the  reader  from  the 
confusion  into  which  he  might  otherwise  fall  owing  to  there  being  two 
paii-s  of  Stirlings  of  the  same  name  ; — 

Alexander  Stirling,  farmer,  Clerkland,  Stewarton. 

\ 

I  I  I  I 

Archibald,  John,  Eobert,  James, 

Factor  to  C'orshill.  Minister  of  Kilbar-  Minister  of  Minister  of  Paisley, 

chan,  1649-83.  Stevenston.  (2ud  charge). 

I  Author  of  Naphlali. 

Died  at  Bombay,  1671  I  2. 


James,  John, 

Minister  of  Kilbarchan,  1688-99.  Minister  of  Inchinnan  and 

,,       ,,   Barony,  1699-1736.  of  Greenock. 

Wrote  the  life  of  his  father  in  Principal  of  Glasgow  College, 

Wodrow's  ^na/ccte.  1701-28. 

According  to  his  grandson/  Alexander  Stirling  was  "  really  a  godly  and 
a  very  wise  man,"  who  "  keeped  exercise  in  his  family  when  feu  in  the 
whole  country  about  him  keeped  it."  His  eldest  son,  Archibald,  though 
he  could  neither  write  nor  read,  was  a  factor.  "  He  was  a  man  of  great 
and  wonderful!  memory.  It's  said  he  knew  not  what  it  was  to  forget  a 
thing  he  desired  to  retean.  He  would  have  lifted  15  or  16  thousand 
merks  yearly  to  two  gentlemen,  Corshill  and  Dr.  Cunninghame,  and  yefc 
by  his  memory  he  would  not  have  miscounted  two  shillings  Scots." 
Archibald  married  a  sister  of  Alexander  Dunlop,  Minister  of  Paisley 
[1644-63],  whose  elocution,  though  impressive,  was  peculiar.  "He  used 
in  the  pulpit  to  have  a  kind  of  groan  at  the  end  of  some  sentences. 
Mr.  Peebles  (LocliAvinnoch)  called  it  a  holy  groan  ;  and  a  relative  of 
the  Laird  of  Ramfordly  in  Kilbarchan  said  after  he  heard  Mr.  Dunlop  at 
Paisley,  '  Many  a  good  happy  word  he  groaned  over  my  head  this  day.' " 
It  was  well  the  part  of  the  Stirlings  to  treat  their  kinsman's  peculiarity 
with  leniency,  if  not  with  approval,  for  it  was  largely  through  Mr. 
Dunlop's  influence  that  John  Stirling  was  settled  in  Kilbarchan,  and  that 
James  Stirling  became  the  "  holy  groanei-'s "  colleague  in  Paisley  ;  and 
perhaps  it  may  have  been  due  to  the  Dunlops'  influence  also  that  John 
Stirling,  the  second,  succeeded  a  son  of  Mr.  Dunlop's  in  1701  as  Principal 
of  Glasgow  University. 

1  James  Stirling,  minister  of  Kilbarchan  [1688-99]  and  of  the  Barony,  Glasgow  [1699-1736]. 
When  not  otherwise  credited,  the  quotations  in  this  chapter  are  from  Wodrow'a  Analecta,  and 
especially  from  that  portion  contributed  by  .James  Stirling. 


72  KILBARCHAN. 

Of  John,  the  second  son,  we  shall  treat  at  some  length  by  and  by. 

Robert,  the  third  son,  was  Minister  of  Stevenston.  One  of  the  same 
name  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley,  November  7,  1659.  His 
nephew  preserves  for  us  the  following  remark  of  his,  which  is  creditable  to 
his  common  sense  : — "  Preaching  on  my  Communion  Munday  in  Kilbar- 
chaii  on  1  Tim.,  vi.  12,  '  Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith,' he  said,  '  O  !  Chris- 
tian or  believer,  thou  may  be  truly  fighting  the  good  fight  of  faith,  when 
tliou  art  kemping  (striving  to  excel  as  a  champion)  on  the  harvest  ridge.'  " 

James,  the  fourth  son,  became  Mr.  Dunlop's  colleague  at  Paisley 
when  but  twenty-three  years  old.  His  nephew  says  "  he  was  very  acute, 
and  learned,  and  pious.  He  had  a  very  polite  and  accurate  way  of 
preaching."  The  once  well-known  work,  NaphtaU  or  the  Wrestlings  of 
the  CJmrch  oj  Scotland,  owes  its  origin  to  him.  In  consequence  of  its  being 
declared  traitorous  and  seditious,  few  of  the  earlier  copies  have  escaped  de- 
struction. He  also  wrote  several  political  skits  in  reply  to  those  of  Francis 
Sempill  of  Beltrees,  who  was  Episcopalian  in  his  symj^athies.  It  was 
James  Stirling  who  was  credited  with  concealing  the  Presbytery  Records, 
so  that,  though  sought  for  high  and  low  by  the  Episcopalians,  they 
could  not  be  found.  His  nephew  restored  the  book  in  1689.  After 
being  outed  in  1662  he  went  to  Bombay  to  be  Minister  at  one  of  the 
plantations,  where  he  was  much  respected.  "A  son  of  the  Laird  of  Auchin- 
ames  "  brought  back  word  to  Kilbarchan  that  "  he  had  all  that  island 
(Bombay)  by  the  nose."  He  died  in  1671  I  2  from  the  effects  of  a  fall  from 
his  horse. 

We  return  to  John,  the  second  son,  who  was  born  in  1620.  At  first 
he  was  not  intended  for  the  pulpit,  but  on  hearing  Mr,  Ephraim  Melville  of 
Linlithgow  (then  a  probationer)  preach  at  Stewarton,  he  was  so  much  im- 
pressed, though  only  fifteen  years  of  age,  that  he  resolved  to  study  for  the 
ministry.  His  own  pithy  account  of  the  change  wrought  in  him  is — "  He 
(Mr.  Melville)  putt  a  sturr  to  my  stomach  that  never  did  go  fiom  it."  He 
went  to  a  school  at  Irvine  taught  by  Mr.  William  Smith,  afterwards 
Minister  of  Largs.  This  teacher  did  all  he  could  for  his  pupil  "  going 
away"  after  school  hours,  "  to  conferr  and  pray  with  him."  John  Stirling 
needed  encouragement.  We  hear  of  his  going  to  the  minister  (David 
Dickson)  and  telling  him  that  "  his  learning  Latine  did  not  go  well  with 
him,  and  he  thought  it  did  ill  to  his  spiritual  exercise  ;  and  so  he  thought 
he  was  called  to  quitt  it.  Mr.  Dickson,  presently  perceiving  the  devil 
working  with  him  in  that  affair,  and  he  said  to  him — '  Do  you  think, 
John,  that  there  is  religion  and  serving  God  in  nothing  but  prayer,  read- 


THE   STIRLINGS   AND   THEIR  TIME.  73 

ing,  meditation,  and  hearing  of  preaching  ?  Dost  thou  not  think  that 
when  a  webster  is  sitting  on  his  loom,  and  working  bussy  at  his  trade, 
that  he  may  be  serving  God  as  well  as  when  praying  and  reading  ?  '  " 
The  Latin  accidence,  however,  still  troubled  the  lad  ;  and,  at  length 
giving  way  to  despair,  he  set  off  for  home  intending  to  abandon  his 
studies  for  ever.  Fortunately,  he  met  Mr.  Dickson,  who  "  put  him  in 
mind  of  that  one  sentence — '  No  man  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plow, 
and  looking  back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God  ;'  adding,  'John,  if  you 
can  answer  that  you  may  go  your  way  where  you  please  ! '  and  left  him." 
John  returned  to  his  Latin  Grammar.  In  course  of  time  he  proceeded  to 
the  college  at  Glasgow,  and  after  a  full  curriculum  "  was  laureat  " — i.e., 
took  a  degree  entitling  him  thereafter  to  be  called  Master.  "He  had," 
we  are  told,  "  no  great  talent  either  for  learning  languages  or  philosophy, 
but  he  was  a  man  of  good  naturall  reach,  naturally  very  wise  and  prudent, 
reserved  and  closs."  During  his  college  career  he  was  chaplain  first  in  the 
family  of  Lady  E,amsay  of  Dalhousie,  and  afterwards  in  that  of  Sir 
Arthur  Erskin  of  Scotscraig.  In  this  capacity  his  duties  were  to  con- 
duct family  worship,  to  say  grace  at  meals,  to  teach  the  children,  and 
on  Sundays  to  examine  the  servants  in  the  Scriptures  and  catechism. 
After  a  prolonged  and  searching  examination  extending  over  eight  weeks, 
he  was  at  length  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley. 

lOth  May,  1649. —  .  .  .  efter  ane  exegesis  in  latine  had  by  him  upon  the  thesis 
given  in  the  last  day,  he  did  sustene  the  thesis  in  dispute,  gave  proof  of  his  knwledge  in  the 
hebrew  and  greek  languages  and  of  his  abilitie  to  open  up  dark  places  of  scripture,  and  to 
resolve  cases  of  conscience  and  being  well  approven  of  the  prebrie.  in  these  and  nil  his 
former  tryalls,  the  prebrie.  gave  him  libertie  to  preach  in  any  kirk  within  their  bounds 
quhar  he  sould  be  called. 

On  such  an  occasion  advice  is  usually  plentiful,  and  the  young  minis- 
ter's "nurse  and  foster-father"  improved  the  occasion.  "When  he 
had  passed  his  tryalls  Mr.  Dickson  gave  him  many  excellent  admonitions 
with  respect  to  his  public  preaching  and  prayer  : — That  he  should  be  as 
short  and  succinct  as  possible,  that  he  might  never  weary  the  people  ;  he 
told  him  that  after  he  was  ordained  he  would  have  to  live,  if  he  could  do 
it  conveniently,  unmarried  four  years  ;  which  my  father  exactly  observed. 
When  he  had  spoken  much  to  him  about  his  preaching  and  administrat- 
ing the  two  sacraments,  he  closed  up  all  with  this — '  0  !  study  God  well 
and  your  own  heart ! '  "  Another  fragment  of  Mr.  Dickson's  sapience, 
not  specially  addressed  to  Jolni  Stirling  however,  is  well  worth  repeating ; 

K 


74  KILBAKCHAN. 

"  He  used  to  say  that  men  that  had  evil  wives,  the  best  way  to  deal  with 
them  was  to  make  much  of  them,  and  buy  them  many  bonny  things." 

According  to  his  son,  it  was  Mr.  James  Glendinning  and  Mr.  Dunlop 
of  Paisley  who  were  the  means  of  securing  the  services  of  John  Stirling 
for  Kilbarchan.  The  former  "  stirred  up  the  Session  of  Kilbarchan  and 
Heretors  to  call  my  father,  immediately  after  he  had  passed  his  tryalls, 
and  said  this  of  him — '  Call  this  young  man,  for  he  is  an  old-headed  and 
experienced  Christian,  though  he  be  but  a  young  preacher.'  "  It  was 
during  this  year  (1649),  that  Kirk  Sessions  became  invested  with  the 
rights  of  patronage. 

16th  Aug.,  1G49. — Compeared  the  parishioners  of  Kilbarchane  and  pubed.  under  their 
hands  in  wreit  ane  most  heartie  and  unanimous  invitation  to  Mr.  Johne  Steirling  expectant 
to  be  y  min'  at  Kilbarchane  and  desyred  that  the  prebrie.  would  put  him  to  tryells  in 
relation  yr.  unto. 

Then  followed  examinations  on  the  same  subjects  as  before,  extending 
over  about  nine  weeks.  By  November  22nd  the  brethren  profess  them- 
selves satisfied  with  his  qualifications  and  order  his  edict  to  be  served. 
This  is  returned  on  December  6th,  signed  by  "  Josephe  Tenent,  schoolm'' 
at  Kilbarchan  "  as  read  by  him  "  at  the  skailing  of  the  congregation "  ; 
and  as  witnesses  there  are  the  following  : — John  Kelso,  James  Speir, 
James  Millar,  and  William  Henderson.  The  ordination  took  place  on 
12th  December,  at  which  Alexander  Dunlop  (Paisley)  preached  in  the 
forenoon  and  Hew  Peblis  (Lochwinnoch)  in  the  afternoon  ;  and 

The  prebrie.  appoint  the  said  day  to  be  keeped  by  the  prebrie.  and  parishioners  of 
Kilbarchane  as  ane  day  of  solemn  humiliation  and  fasting  .  .  .  and  the  day  .  .  . 
to  be  keeped  therefter  as  ane  day  of  humiliation  by  the  prebrie.  and  congregation  in  all 
tyme  coming. 

His  son  informs  us  that  "  he  was  the  first  minister  that  was  ordeaned  with 
fasting  and  prayer  in  the  presbytery  of  Paisley  ;  by  one  minister  preach- 
ing, in  the  forenoon,  the  dutys  of  ministers,  and  ordeaning  the  man  ;  and 
another  minister  in  the  afternoon  preaching  the  dutys  of  the  people  ; 
which  custome,  since  that  time,  has  alwise  be[en]  continoned  in  that 
presbytery." 

In  view  of  Stirling's  early  settlement  in  Kilbarchan  and  anticipating 
some  difficulty  owing  to  the  manse  being  still  occupied  by  the  relict  of 
Mr.  Andro  Hamilton,  the  Presbytery  had  in  October  appointed  a  com- 
mittee "  to  sight  [examine]  the  manse  and  glebe  of  Kilbarchane  and  to 
indevoure  ane  settilling  and  agriement  betwixt  the  parishioners  and  the 


THE   STIELINGS   AND   THEIR  TIME.  75 

relict  of  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton  that  ane  frie  entrie  may  be  yrunto  by  the 
intrant."  In  this  they  succeeded  probably  beyond  their  expectations,  for 
a  month  later  they  report  "  that  they  had  settled  the  parishioners  of 
Kilbarchan  and  the  relict  of  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton  anent  the  manse."  It 
is  unlikely,  however,  that  Stirling  ever  occupied  this  house,  for,  three 
months  after  his  ordination,  Mr.  James  Montgomerie  of  Weitlands  pro- 
poses "  to  excamb  the  present  manse  and  glebe  .  .  .  with  [for]  ane 
house  and  some  land  belonging  to  the  Laird  of  Craigends  at  the  said  Kii'k 
qch.  will  be  both  better  and  more  commodious  for  the  minister,  and  the 
Presbytery  appoint  a  committee  to  sight  it  and  make  report."  Nothing 
further  is  heard  of  the  matter  for  nearly  three  years,  wlien  it  is  discovered 
that  the  new  manse,  which,  though  new  as  a  manse,  may  have  been  old  as 
a  house,  stands  in  need  of  repairs  which  will  cost  850  merks.  Of  this  sum 
Craigends  provides  300  merks,  and  Andro  Arthure,  Archbald  Lokhart, 
John  How  younger,  Andro  Sempill,  John  Paterson,  John  Adam  and  Hew 
Sempill  are  appointed  to  stent  the  parish  {i.e.,  the  heritors)  and  raise  the 
remainder.  The  new  manse,  thus  exchanged  and  repaired,  is  probably 
the  house  now  known  as  14  Steeple  Street.  The  older  manse — once  the 
Vicar's  house — appears  to  have  been  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
church,  but  where  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

One  of  the  first  duties  which  fell  to  the  newly  ordained  Minister  was 
to  subject  Francis  and  James  Sempill  of  Beltrees  to  church  discipline  for 
having  been  amongst  the  Engagers ;  ^  they  had  "  to  sitt  on  a  seate  before 
the  pulpit  in  Kilbarchan  in  tym  of  sermon  and  yreftir  give  evidence  of  yr. 
repentance."  Three  months  before,  another  Kilbarchan  man,  John  Adam 
by  name,  confessed  a  similar  offence  and  made  similar  atonement. 

Kilbarchan,  like  its  neighbours,  could  at  this  time  boast  of  possessing 
persons  learned  in  the  arts  of  witchcraft  : — 

14th  March,  1650. — The  process  of  the  Session  of  Kilbarchane  led  against  William 
Browne  yr.  for  charming  and  the  presumptione  of  witchcraft ;  recomended  to  ye  civill 
magrt.  to  be  apprehended. 

26th  May,  1650. — Declaration  being  made  by  the  minst.  of  Kilbarchane  of  Steven 
Cochrane  in  Linwood  for  diverse  presumptiones  of  witchcraft ;  it  is  seriouslie  recomended 
to  the  sess.  yt.  he  be  apprehended  and  ye  session  of  Kilbarchane  to  procede  with  tryell  yrof. 

After  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  September  3,  1650,  the  ministers  were 
expected  to  act  as  recruiting  officers.     Though  Stirling  may  not  have 

^  The  officers  of  the  Scottish  Army  in  England  who  had  made  too  easy  terms  with  Charles  I. 


76  KILBARCHAN. 

been  present  at  Dunbar,  like  Peebles  of  Lochwinnoch,  he  may  have  been 
enthusiastic  in  beating  up  recruits  : — 

25th  Sept.,  1650. — The  Comittee  of  the  Schyre  having  appointed  that  men  vyho  are  fitt 
and  eable  for  service  sould  offir  themslves  willinglie  to  ye  service  against  the  enemye  and 
enroll  yr.  names,  yt.  they  may  be  readie  to  goe  upon  advertisment ;  the  presbie.  appointed 
ye  sevall  brethrene  to  intimat  this  order  ....  and  to  stir  up  all  who  are  fitt  and  able 
to  offer  themselves  cheirfullie  and  willingly  to  ye  work. 

In  all  the  churches  a  collection  was  made  foi-  the  prisoners  taken  by 
Cromwell  : — 

30th  Oct.,  1650. — It  is  appointed  that  there  be  a  collection  out  of  ye  sevall  congrega- 
tions for  snpplie  of  the  prisoners  in  ye  sectaries  hands  taken  at  Dunbar.     .     .     . 

That  the  minister  did  not  meet  with  the  universal  approval  of  his 
parishioners  (possibly  no  minister  ever  did)  the  following  entry  shows  : — 

15th  May,  1651. — Compeared  Johne  Barbour  in  Kilbarchane  confessed  reprochfuU 
speiches  of  the  minister  yr.  uttered  be  him  against  ye  minister,  and  yt.  be  said,  it  was  ye 
Divill  yt.  broucht  him  yr.  The  prebrie.  appointed  him  to  acknowledge  his  fault  before  the 
congregation  of  Kilbarchane. 

Perhaps  the  hardest  and  least  encouraging  duty  which  fell  to  Stirling 
during  the  early  part  of  his  ministry,  was  that  of  attempting  to  win  over 
the  noble  family  at  Castle  Sempill  to  Presbyterianism.  In  connection 
with  this  Beltrees,  the  Engager,  again  got  himself  into  trouble  : — 

2nd  Jan.,  1651. — Compeared  F'  Semple  of  Biltrees  reported  by  ye  Session  of  Kil- 
barchane for  haunting  the  fellowschip  of  ye  old  Lady  Semple  ane  excomunicat  papist ;  he  is 
appointed  to  confess  his  sine  before  ye  congregation  and  to  bewar  of  ye  lyke  againe, 
othwayes  he  will  incur  hyer  censure. 

31st  July,  1651. — The  Presbrie  ....  being  informed  yt.  ye  Lord  Mordingtoun 
dauchtir  and  the  Lord  Sempill  sistere  were  in  Castell  Sempill,  Mrs.  Hew  Peibles  and  Johne 
Stirling  were  appointed  to  speak  and  confer  with  them. 

26th  Sept.,  1655. — The  Presbrie.  being  informed  that  the  Lord  Sempill  and  his  familie 
are  professedlie  papists,  and  now  come  to  reside  within  the  paroche  of  Lochwinzech  within 
their  bounds,  they  doe  therefor  appoint  Mrs.  Hew  Peibles,  John  Stirling  and  James  Alex- 
ander (Kilmacolm)  to  speak  to  the  Lord  Sempill  and  his  familie  betwixt  and  the  next 
prebrie.  day  and  to  confer  and  make  report. 

Tliis  appointment  was  more  easily  made  than  fulfilled.  Lord  Sempill 
was  quite  satisfied  with  his  religion.  He  did  not  extend  a  very  hearty 
welcome  to  the  Ministers  when  they  notified  him  of  their  Intention  to 
come  and  discuss  creeds  with  him.  He  put  them  ofl:'  from  time  to  time 
with  various  excuses — it  was  inconvenient  to  receive  them — he  would  be 


THE   STIRLINGS   AND   THEIR   TIME.  IT 

from  home  on  the  day  mentioned — he  had  to  appear  that  very  day  before 
the  English  Judges  at  Glasgow  (April  30,  1656)  etc.,  etc.  When  to  free 
himself  from  the  pei'sistency  of  Paisley  Presbytery  he  removed  to  Southeii- 
nan  or  to  East  Lothian,  a  statement  of  the  stage  reached  at  Paisley  in  the 
proceedings  against  him  was  sent  to  the  Presbyteries  of  Irvine  or  Hadding- 
ton. When  tired  of  evasions,  he  at  last  consented  to  meet  the  Ministers, 
the  interview  was  not  encouraging,  and  they  had  to  report  that  they  found 
him  very  obstinate.  Under  citation  and  admonition,  the  conduct  of  the 
Castle  Sempill  family  did  not  improve.  There  were  presumptions  that  a 
Popish  priest  was  living  at  the  Castle  whom  the  Presbytery  urged  the 
Sheriff"  to  search  for  and  apprehend  [20th  January,  1658];  and  thei-e  were 
more  than  presumptions  that  John  Simpson,  a  Greenock  piper,  more  than 
once  convicted  of  supplying  the  music  for  promiscuous  and  scandalous 
dancing  at  weddings,  had  exceeded  the  worst  of  his  former  errors  by 
sharing  in  the  superstitious  keeping  of  Yule  Day,  1657,  at  Castle  Sempill. 

The  proceedings  against  the  Sempill  family  occupied  the  Presbytery's 
attention  for  about  four  years.  Thrice  v^ere  they  from  the  pulpit  sum- 
moned to  tlie  Presbytery — thrice  publicly  admonished,  from  the  pulpit 
also,  but  in  their  absence — and  thrice  solemnly  prayed  for  in  church — yet 
they  continued  wilful,  obstinate,  and  contemptuous.  It  remained  only  to 
excommunicate  them,  and  excommunicated  they  were — Lord  Sempill  and 
his  lady,  his  uncle,  his  brother,  his  sister,  and  his  servant — and  Mr. 
Peibles  pronounced  the  sentence  in  Lochwinnoch  Church  one  Sunday  in 
August,  1659. 

A  good  Catholic  like  Lord  Sempill  could  of  course  treat  with  con- 
tempt the  fulminations  of  Presbyterian  heretics,  but  excommunication 
had  consequences  which  he  and  his  family  and  liis  Protestant  friends 
must  have  found  exceedingly  inconvenient.  A  sort  of  boycott  was  insti- 
tuted ;  without  the  Presbytery's  sanction  no  one  dared  liold  communica- 
tion with  the  excomnumicated  Papists  : — 

19th  October,  1G59. — License  granted  to  David  Landess  to  speake  to  the  L.  Semple 
he  first  acquainting  Mr.  Hew  Peibles  yrwith. 

7th  Nov.,  1659. — License  granted  to  Andrew  Sempill  in  Renfrew  to  speak  with  the 
Lord  and  Lady,  as  necessitie  requires,  he  acquainting  his  own  minister  and  Mr.  Hew  Peibles 
therewith. 

Lord  Montgomery,  who  without  the  sanction  of  the  Presbytery 
"  familiarly  conversed  with  the  Lord  Sempill  in  his  owne  family,"  was 
reported  to  the  Presbytery  of  Irvine,  that  "  they  may  take  some  effectual 
means  for  restraining  the  like  in  time  coming." 


78  KILBARCHAN. 

The  Yule  after  his  excommunication,  which  fell  on  a  Sunday,  Lord 
Sempill  celebrated  with  more  than  the  ordinary  festivities ;  and  some  of 
his  guests  on  that  occasion — Alexander  Hamilton  in  Kilbarchan, 
Katharine  Blaire  his  spouse,  and  Giles  Semple,  spouse  to  Clochoderick — 
had  to  submit  to  a  rebuke  before  the  congregation  of  Lochwinnoch  for 
"  familiar  conversing,  eating  and  drinking  and  danceing  with  the  excom- 
inunicat  Popish  Lord  at  his  superstitious  observatione  of  Yuil." 

Any  one  reading  the  Presbytery  Records  dealing  with  this  time 
must  be  struck  with  the  numerous  public  demands  made  on  the  Ministers' 
time  and  energy.  During  the  ten  years,  1650-9,  there  were  no  fewer  than 
234  meetings  of  Presbytery — an  average  of  two  a  month.  The  Minister 
of  Kilbarchan  was  regular  in  his  attendance,  and  was  sometimes  accom- 
panied by  a  Ruling  Elder  chosen  from  time  to  time  from  among  the 
following : — Craigends,  John  How  of  Dambtoun,  Andro  Arthure,  John 
Patesoune,  David  Andrew,  William  Merschell,  Hew  Sempill.  If  absent, 
the  Ministers  had  to  give  excuses.  Nearly  every  meeting  was  opened 
with  long  I'eligious  exercises,  including  exposition.  If  there  was  no  can- 
didate for  license  or  ordination  the  brethren  took  the  exercise  in  turn, 
preaching,  however,  not  an  old  sermon,  but  an  exposition  on  a  text  pre- 
scribed by  the  Presbytery.  A  book  of  Scripture  gone  systematically 
through  sujjplied  texts  : — 

20th  Feb.,  1G51. — Mr.  Johne  Stirling  made  ye  exercise  ^Ir.  Joline  Drysdaill  added  on 
2  Cor.  xi.  9.  ;  approveii. 

The  text  for  next  meeting  would  be  the  following  verse. 

15th  Feb.,  1654. — Mr.  Johne  Stirling  made  and  Mr.  Hew  Smith  added  on  2  Cor.  xii. 
10.  ;  approven  ;  they  are  appointed  to  have  the  exercise  vice  versa  the  next  day. 

After  finishing  Corintliians  the  brethren  plodded  their  way  through  Gala- 
tians  ill  the  same  slow,  systematic  manner. 

Fasts — days  of  thanksgiving  and  of  humiliation — were  very  fre- 
quent : — 

21st  Mar.,  1G50. — Ane  solemne  humiliation  appointed  by  ye  comission  of  ye  Gnall. 
Assemblie  to  be  keeped  the  first  Sabbath  of  April  is  ordained  to  be  observed,  and  intimation 
of  ye  causes  yrof  to  be  made  on  ye  Sabbath  preceding. 

16th  May,  1650. — A  solemne  thanksgiving  for  ye  overthrow  given  by  ye  justice  of 
God  to  James  Grahame  [Marquess  of  Montrose]  appointed  to  be  keeped  on  Wednisday  come 
eight  days  according  to  ye  appointment  of  ye  comission  of  ye  Gnall.  Assemblie. 

Similar  entries  occur  on  August  9  and  November  7,  1650  ;  on  January  9, 
June  26,  November  6,  1651  ;  on  August  26,  1652,  until — 


THE   STIRLINGS    AND    THEIR   TIME.  7» 

24th  Sept.,  1652. — A  letter  from  Mr.  Robert  Baillie  and  Mr.  George  Young  to  Mr. 
Johne  Stirling,  moderator,  was  red,  desyring  him  to  communicat  the  causes  of  the  late 
assemblie  to  be  keeped  by  the  prebrie.  on  the  dayes  appointed  by  them.  The  prebrie.  finds 
it  unfitt  to  renew  another  fast  so  soone. 

But,  five  weeks  later,  in  spite  of  this  protest,  they  appoint  a  day  fur 
humihation  on  account  of  "  the  lamentable  condition  of  the  work  of  God 
in  the  land." 

Mr.  Stirling's  parishioners  needed  a  good  deal  of  looking  after — they 
are  charged,  and  usually  convicted,  of  uncleanness,  drunkenness,  swearing. 
Sabbath  breaking,  and  disobedience  to  the  Session. 

loth  Jan.,  1651. — James  Cuming,  in  Mill  of  Cart,  for  swearing  be  Christ's  wounds  and 
Agnes  Sempill,  guid  wife  of  Clothodrick  for  cursing,  to  wit,  biding  God's  curse  be  on 
James  Cuming  and  all  his  family,  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

29th  Aug.,  1651. — William  Cochran,  in  Hallhill,  for  druckenness,  quhilk  he  confest. 

1st  Oct.,  1652. — John  Rid,  in  Thridpairt  Milne,  for  cursing  the  ministers,  in  bidding 
God's  curse  be  on  Peebles,  Dunlop,  and  our  owne  ministers  ;  and  devil  tak  shame  for  not 
keiping  the  fast,  and  saying  that  they  have  the  wait  of  all  the  ill  comes  on  us. 

5th  May,  165-1. — James  King,  younger,  in  Auchindinnan  Miln,  and  his  wyfe,  ]\Iarione 
Cochrane,  and  Isobell  AVilson,  for  fectin  and  flytin. 

11th  May,  1655. — Marione  Cochran,  in  Auchindinnan  !Mill,  for  breaking  of  the  Sab- 
both  and  the  profaning  a  solemn  fast,  for  balking  bread  on  it,  and  for  fechting  and  flyting.^ 

These  were  cases  reported  by  the  Session  to  the  civil  judge,  and  were  left 
to  be  dealt  with  by  him. 

Within  two  years,  1G54-6,  the  parish  provided  no  fewer  than  five 
adultery  cases,  to  the  great  shame  and  confusion  of  the  Minister.  But  Mr. 
Glendinning  came  from  Largs  to  see  him  and  gave  him  the  best  of  encourage- 
ment. "  He  came  to  see  my  father  after  these  five  adulterys  broke  out 
together,  and  he  said  to  him,  '  Sir,  the  Devil  is  very  angry  at  you,  for  he 
thinks  you  are  coming  in  on  his  quarters  to  spoil  and  rob  him  of  souls  ; 
and  he  is  doing  all  he  can  to  faint  and  discourage  you,  by  raising  all  that 
sculduddery  work  against  you  !  But  be  not  discouraged,  for  God  is  doing 
much  good  by  your  ministry,  and  the  Devil  is  very  angry  at  you.'  And 
when  Mr.  Glendinning  went  throu  the  merkat  place,  to  go  away  from  my 
father,  he  cryed  out,  '  Bless  God  for  your  minister.'  " 

If  we  take  the  pastoral  diligence  he  showed  two  days  before  his  death 
as  an  index  of  his  general  diligence,  Mr.  Stirling  must  have  kept  himself 
very  busy  indeed.  On  that  day  he  walked  twelve  miles  and  conducted 
worship  in  private  houses  at  least  four  times,  though  he  was  already  very 

» Dr.  J.  F.  S.  Gordon,  in  Glasrjov:  Hemid,  March  1897. 


80  KILBARCHAN. 

ill  and  weak.  In  addition  to  the  ordinary  canonical  services  in  the  Parish 
Church  on  Sunday,  when  he  often,  it  is  to  be  feared,  preached  politics,  he 
had  a  service  in  his  hall  (probably  the  hall  of  his  own  house)  in  the  afternoon 
or  evening,  at  which  his  teaching  was  strictly  Biblical  and  expository.  There 
was  also  divine  service  in  the  chnrch  on  Friday,  which  was  usually  very  well 
attended  ;  Craigends,  as  we  learn  from  his  diary,  was  almost  as  regularly 
in  church  on  Friday  as  he  was  on  Sunday.  "  After  all  his  public  work 
(on  Sabbath)  he  usually  keeped  a  lecture  in  his  hall,  to  which  many 
of  the  clachan  of  Kilbarciian  did  come  and  severalls  from  other  parts  of  the 
parish.  In  these  lectures  he  went  over  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  [at] 
least  the  greatest  part  of  them.  And  the  thing  that  moved  him  to  keep 
up  in  his  house  these  evening  lectures  was  this  :  He  was  called  to  visit  an 
old  woman  that  was  dying,  and  really  found  more  in  her  than  he 
expected,  for  he  took  her  to  be  a  stranger  to  a  work  of  grace,  and  yet  he 
found  ther  was  a  work  of  grace  and  true  conversion  wrought  in  her.  He 
questioned  her  how  she  came  by  it.  She  told  him  she  came  to  hear  liim 
preach  publickly  in  the  kirk  of  Kilbarchan,  but  she  did  not  know  really 
what  he  would  have  been  at ;  for  he  was  preaching  then  against  a  sinfull 
torrent  of  errors,  which  the  English  sectarian  army  [i.e.,  Cromwell's  soldiers) 
had  brought  in  ;  '  But,'  says  the  poor  old  woman,  '  I  heard  you  preach  in 
your  hall  when  all  was  done,  and  then  God  took  me  by  the  heart.  Com- 
mend me  to  the  hall  preaching,  and  see  that  you  alwise  hold  up  yours  ! ' " 

With  regard  to  the  Friday  services,  his  son  says  : — "  Ther  was  a  great 
hunger  (desire  of  religious  instruction  and  exercises)  among  the  people  of 
Kilbarchan,  the  first  thirteen  years  my  father  was  there  ;  for  he  had 
preaching  every  week  on  the  Friday.  And  he  told  me,  '  In  the  very  heat 
of  harvest,  he  preached  on  Friday  and  the  kirk  would  have  been  full  even 
to  the  very  door.  The  people  would  have  left  the  harvest  for  ane  hour 
and  a  half,  and  heard  the  preaching  with  a  great  greediness,  and  then  re- 
turned to  their  work  presently  ;  and  that  dayes  work  was  as  well  wrought 
as  any  day  of  the  week  ;  and  their  carnall  master  did  never  grudge  at 
their  going  to  sermon,  since  he  got  his  work  well  enough  wrought.'  " 

On  the  3rd  September,  1658,  Cromwell  died  ;  on  the  29th  May,  1G60, 
Charles  II.  entered  London  in  triumph.  These  events  had  consequences 
which  greatly  affected  the  tenor  of  Stirling's  subsequent  life.  Though 
Cromwell  fought  against  and  defeated  the  Presbyterian  army  at  Dunbar — 
though  the  sectaries  were  vigorously  denounced  from  Presbyterian  pulpits 
— though  his  lieutenant  dispersed  the  General  Assembly  in  July,  1G53, 
and  Captain  Greine  did  the  same  to  Paisley  Presbytery  in  the   following 


THE   STIRLIXGS    AND   THEIR   TIME.  81 

month — yet  the  Presbyterians  of  Scotland  had  very  little  to  complain  of 
under  the  Protectorate.  But  the  29th  of  May — the  day  of  the  Piestora- 
tion  of  their  once  covenanted  but  now  perjiued  kiuL;' — was  a  black  day  in 
the  Presbyterian  calendar.  The  Scottish  Parliament  met  on  1st  January, 
1(561,  and  passed  a  Rescissory  Act  annulling  all  laws  passed  since  1G33. 
An  Act  of  the  Privy  Council  subsequently  forbade  Synods,  Presbyteries,  or 
Kirk  Sessions  to  meet  until  authorised  by  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese.  Mean- 
while at  London  four  Scottish  clergymen  received  consecration  as  Bishops, 
amongst  whom  was  Fairfowl,  the  futvu-e  Archbishop  of  Glasgow  ;  and  the 
Covenant  was  burned  by  the  common  hangman.  In  May,  16G2,  an  Act  for 
the  restitution  and  re-establishment  of  tlie  ancient  government  of  the 
Church  by  Bishops  was  passed  by  the  Scottish  Parliament.  Then  followed  a 
succession  of  measures  to  force  men  not  only  to  adhere  to  the  new  order  of 
things,  but  to  abjure  and  condemn  the  old.  The  Covemiut  was  declared 
illegal;  all  who  occu[)ied  public  otiices  had  to  abjure  it;  all  clergymi  u 
ordained  since  the  abolition  of  patronage  in  1G49,  were  to  be  dispossessed 
of  everything  they  enjoyed,  unless  they  obtained  a  presentation  from  the 
lawful  patron  and  had  coHation  from  the  Bishop  of  the  diocese. 

John  Stirling  had  been  appointed  by  the  Kirk  Session  of  Kilbarchan  in 
1G49,  and  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley;  it  was  therefore 
necessary  that  he,  if  he  wished  to  continue  to  be  minister  of  Kilbarchan, 
should  get  a  new  presentation  from  the  patron,  probaI)ly  the  Earl  of 
Lauderdale,  and  be  collated  by  Archbishop  Fairfowl.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  he  ever  thought  of  conforming. 

The  Piivy  Coimcil  sitting  at  Glasgow,  1st  Octoljer,  1GG2,  enacted  that 
clergymen  who  had  not  conformed  should  remove  themselves  and  their 
families  out  of  their  parishes  before  1st  November,  that  their  churches 
should  be  vacant,  that  stipend  for  crop  and  year  1GG2  should  not  be  paid 
to  them,  and  that  their  parishioners  sliould  not  attend  their  services  or 
acknowledge  them  to  be  their  lawful  pastoi'S.  Though  the  time  was 
afterwards  somewhat  extended,  yet  350  ministers,  of  wliom  John  Stirling 
was  one,  rather  than  conform,  left  their  parishes.  They  became  known 
as  ontcd  ministers,  and,  as  those  wiio  suffered  for  conscience'  sake,  they 
were  held  in  special  reverence  by  the  people.  "  My  father,"  says  the 
son,  "enquiring  of  Mr.  Glendiiuiing  after  the  said  Ptevolntion,  1GC.2,  what 
he  thought  of  the  times,  '  Very  good  times,  very  good  times,'  said  he,  '  I'nr 
honest  men  are  now  kent  to  be  honest  men  and  knaves  to  be  knaves.'"' 

Towards  the  end  of  16G2,  or  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  following, 
John  Stirling,  with  his  wife  and  three  or  four  young  children  had  to  leave 

L 


82  KILBAKCHAN. 

his  laome  and  face  the  bleak  world.  Though  di-iven  from  the  manse, 
tlie  Mhiister  may  have  Hngered  for  some  montlis  about  the  parish,  quietly 
fulfilling-  his  ordinary  duties,  until  a  further  Act  of  Council,  August  13, 
16G3,  forbade  recusant  ministers,  such  as  he  was,  to  reside  within  twenty 
miles  of  their  old  parishes,  six  miles  of  Edinburgh  or  any  other  cathedral 
town,  or  three  miles  of  any  royal  burgh.  We  know  little  of  his  move- 
ments during  the  next  nine  years,  except  that  for  some  time  he  stayed 
at  Cunninghamhead,  attended  conventicles  and  sometimes  preached,  and 
that  he  visited  his  old  parish  once  at  leash  "  Though  he  was  one  that 
preached  as  much  as  many  men  before  he  was  indulged,  yet  he  was 
strangely  keeped  out  of  the  enemies'  hands  that  they  got  never  power  to 
apprehend  him  or  put  him  in  prison.  Though  one  time  there  was  a  party 
of  soldiers  sent  to  Cunninghamhead  to  apprehend  him.  yet  he  gote  notice 
of  it  before  and  went  to  Edinburgh,  though  ther  was  one  among  them  a 
naturall  friend  (near  relative)  of  his  own,  Robert  Montgommery  of  Giflfen, 
that  appeared  to  be  very  rude  against  my  father  and  said,  '  We  shall  have 
him,  if  he  be  out  of  hell  !  '  and  yet,  when  the  party  of  soldiers,  having 
missed  him  at  his  own  house,  [they]  met  him  in  the  way  riding  from  Edin- 
burgh with  some  other  gentlemen,  that  same  man  stayed  a  little  behind 
and  spoke  to  my  father  and  said,  '  We  have  been  at  your  house  seeking 
you  ;  but  God  be  thanked,  we  did  not  meet  with  you  there'  "  .  .  .  . 
"  One  James  Fleming,  that  was  Corshill's  cook,  told  me  that  my  father 
would  come  to  their  meetings  for  prayer,  and  that  they  would  have 
desired  him  to  pray,  and  he  would  have  said,  'lean  do  notliing  but 
mourn.'  " 

The  following  sentences  from  Wodrow  illustrate  the  inconveniences 
and  dangers  to  which  the  Minister  was  exposed  during  the  years  he  was 
outed  : — 

22  June,  ICG") — The  Council  grant  liberty  to  Mr.  John  Stirling,  late  minister,  to  come 
to  Edinburgh,  and  stay  about  his  necessary  afiairs  for  twenty  days.  And,  20  July,  upon 
a  new  petition  he  is  permitted  to  continue  in  Edinburgh  for  his  health,  till  September  1st. 
We  see  what  unnecessary  trouble  and  changes  those  worthj  ministers  were  put  to,  in  so 
frequent  petitioning  for  a  thing  no  subject  ought  to  be  restricted  in,  without  a  crime 
proven  against  them.' 

This  summer,    1670,   the  laird   of  JMeldium,   an  officer  of  the  guards 

aijprehended  several  good  people  in  the  parish  of  Lochwinnoch,  Kilbarchan,  and  Kil- 
malcolm .  .  .  and  put  them  to  very  great  trouble  for  hearing  the  outed  ministers. 
The  laird  of  Johnstone,  in  Renfrewshire,  for  having  Mr.  John  Stirling,  who  had  been  his 


THE   STIELINGS   AND   THEli;    TIME.  83 

parish  minister  at  Kilbarchan,  in  his  house,  and  hearing  him  preach  once  in  his  family,  was 
apprehended,  and  brought  before  the  Chancellor,  where  it  was  like  to  stand  hard  with 
him.  With  difficulty  his  friends  got  him  liberated,  upon  his  giving  a  bonl  of  5000  mks., 
to  compear  when  called.  The  reverend  Mr.  John  Stirling  very  narrowly  escaped  from  his 
own  house,  and  was  diligently  searched  for  by  the  soldiers,  but  got  off  happily. i 

That  Mrs.  Stirling  was  a  lady  of  some  spirit  is  evident  from  the 
following,  which  has  been  preserved  by  her  son  : — When  William  Taylour, 
"  one  of  the  choicest  Christians  in  all  Kilmarnock  ....  snid  to 
my  mother,  '  do  ye  not  reu  that  ye  married  a  minister,  when  ye  see  hoo 
they  are  handled  ? '  She  said,  '  indeed  no  ; '  and  he  said,  "  Fair  fall  yon, 
woman,  that  sayes  so.'  " 


//. — John  Stirling  as  an  Indulged  Minister,  1672 — SS. 

As  early  as  1G67  it  became  apparent  that  there  was  little  hope  of 
coercing  Scottish  Presbyterians  into  conformity  Avitli  Episcopacy  ;  there 
was,  therefore,  devised  a  scheme  under  which  the  more  law-abiding  and 
moderate  of  the  outed  ministers  might  return  to  their  parishes  and  resume 
the  exercise  of  their  ministerial  fnnctions.  In  1669  an  Act  was  passed 
by  which  at  first  twelve  outed  ministers  and  soon  afterwards  thirty  more, 
were  appointed  to  vacant  parishes.  The  conditions  under  which  they 
were  permitted  to  return  were,  everything  considered,  reasonable  enough  ; 
they  were  to  confine  themselves  to  their  parishes;  they  were  to  administer 
the  sacraments  to  none  but  their  own  parishioners ;  they  were  not  to  per- 
mit, much  less  to  encourage,  people  from  other  parishes  to  attend  tlieir 
preaching  ;  they  were  to  be  allowed  the  manse  and  glebe  but  only  a  Ijave 
maintenance  from  the  stipend. 

By  a  farther  Act  of  Council,  September  3,  1(;72,  eighty  more  of  the 
outed  ministers  were  appointed  to  fift3^-eight  parishes.  According  to  this 
Act  Messrs.  John  Stirling  and  James  Walkinshaw  were  appointed  and 
ordered  to  repair  to  Kilbarchan  and  to  remain  there  confined,  preaching 
and  exercising  the  other  parts  of  their  ministerial  function  within  the 
bounds  of  the  parish.  Wodrow  gives  as  a  reason  why  Kilbarchan  got 
two  ministers  when  one  would  have  suflficed,  that  it  was  hoped  that  by 
multiplying  agents  divisions  would  take  place,  and  Presbyterianism  thus 


84  KILBAECHAN. 

bring  itself  into  repronch  and  lose  its  hold  on  tla'  |)(>puku-  mind.  Of  James 
Walkinshaw,  Stirling's  colleague,  we  know  very  little  ;  one  of  the  suine 
name  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley,  August  26,  1G57,  was 
minister  of  Baldernoch,  was  outed  in  16G2/  and  was  arraigned  before  the 
Council  for  preaching  and  keeping  conventicles,  August  18,  1GG3.-  Of 
his  diligence  in  Kilbarchan,  or  of  how  he  and  Stirling  got  on  together  as 
colleagues,  we  know  nothing. 

John  Stirling  had,  it  seems,  some  hesitation  about  accepting  the 
Indulgence,  but  he  did  accept  it.  "  Before  he  accepted  it,"  says  his  son, 
"  he  seemed  to  be  somewhat  troubled,  but  at  length  he  got  that  clearness 
from  God  about  it  that  he  was  never  troubled  any  more  with  all  that 
they  belched  out  against  it."  "  When  people  were  crying  out  much 
against  the  Indulgence,  he  said,  '  I  am  not  much  moved  with  all  that 
they  call  say,  for  I  am  piersuaded  it  was  my  fluty  to  accept  it.'  " 

The  ministers  who  accepted  the  Indulgence  were  not  in  a  verv 
enviable  |)osition  ;  the  Episcopalians  were  jealous  of  them,  and  had  no 
fellowship  with  them  ;  and  in  the  eyes  of  their  more  steadfast  brethren 
who  had  scorned  the  Indulgence,  they  were  renegades  more  culpable  than 
the  curates  themselves.  Mause  Headrigg's  opinion  of  Peter  Poundtext, 
the  indulged  minister  of  her  parish,  was  probably  the  opinion  of  many  in 
Kilbarchan  regarding  John  Stirling — "  that  Ijlinded  man  .... 
ance  a  precious  teacher  of  the  word,  but  now  a  back-sliding  pastor,  that 
has,  for  the  sake  of  stipend  and  maintenance,  forsaken  the  strict  path  and 
gane  astray  after  the  Black  Indulgence."" 

The  loss  of  his  popularity  in  Kilijarchan  must  have  been  extremely 
gallino-  to  John  Stirling  ;  that  he  could  never  have  "a  week  dayes  sermon 
in  time  of  harvest  "  (for  want  of  a  congregation)  may  have  been  the  very 
least  of  it.  His  .son  touches  as  lightly  as  he  can  on  this  uncongenial 
topic,  and  would  have  us  believe  that  the  change  in  the  Kilbarchan 
appetite  for  .sermons  was  due  to  the  ministry  of  the  (Jurate,  David  Pier- 
son.  "  That  ten  years  that  the  hireling  curat  was  among  them,  ther  was 
a  sad  and  woeful  sett  of  profanity  and  loosness  put  upon  them  ;  so  that 
they  wer  then  cursing  and  swearing,  who  had  been  a  sort  (company)  of 
sober  and  moral  people  before."  Vexatious  indeed  was  it  for  the  indulged 
minister  to  see  parishioners  passing  his  church  door  on  their  way  to  the 
perilous  but  popular  field  preachings  or  conventicles  held  not  far  from  the 

'Hid.,  i.  328.  -Uist.,  i.  372.  ''Old  Mortalittj,  Cliap.  viii. 


THE   STIULIXGS    AND    THEIl;    TIME.  85- 

liounds  of  liis  pansli,'  where  ministers  who  had  sconied  the  unholy  Tiidul- 
gence  were  hstened  to  for  hours  as  tliey  harangued  their  tiock  with  the 
vigour,  hut  without  the  grotesqueness  which  characterised  Gabriel  Kettle- 
druninde's  orations,  and  where  the  seventy-sixth  Psahn  revealed,  as  it  was 
being  heartily  sung,  a  new  depth  of  meaning.  But  Stirling  never  wanted 
for  consoling  friends  in  a  time  of  trial,  and  his  son  tells  us  that  at  this 
time  Mr.  Gt^oige  Hutche.son  of  Kili^cahnonel  wrote  his  father  "after  he 
came  to  KiUiarchan  in  1(J7"_',  and  had  these  expressions  in  liis  letter 
speaking  of  these  ministers  who  preachtd  in  the  fields:— 'They  are 
preaching  the  people  from  us  ;  they  will  in  a  little  preach  them  from 
themselves  and  all  others.  Bread  corn  must  be  bruised,  honest  ministers 
must  not  want  exercise,  though  it  should  come  from  friends  ;  that  they 
being  broken  or  ground  smaller  thereby,  this  may  the  better  contribute 
to  fitt  them  for  the  feeding  of  the  Lord's  people  !  '  " 

The  minister  had  not  long  returned  to  Kilbarchan  when  he  got  into 
trouble  again.  His  name  appears  in  a  list  of  nineteen  indulged  ministers 
arraigned  before  the  Council  at  Edinburgh,  8th  July,  1G73,  and  fined 
"in  the  loss  of  half  their  stipend,  for  the  year  and  crop  1G73,  for  not 
keeping  the  •J'.Uh  of  May  " — the  anniversary  of  the  Uestoration.  Presbj-- 
terianism  had  of  course  a  deep-rooted  objection  to  keeping  "any  anniver- 
saries or  holy  days  of  human  institution."  Stirling  is  again  before  the 
Council,  August  ILth,  1G77,  with  about  twenty  others,  for  what  reason 
Wodrow  does  not  know,  but  ihiidcs  "  it  is  probable  it  was  upon  informa- 
tion given  of  their  not  keeping  the  rules" — i.e.,  the  conditions  upon  wiiich 
they  had  been  granted  indulgence. 

The  presence  in  Kilbarchan  of  a  minister  not  answerable  to  the 
Episcopal  Presbytery  occasioned  inconveniencies  in  the  procedui-e  of  that 
body  of  which  it  had  just  cause  to  complain.  One,  Thomas  Orr,  a  Kilbar- 
chan man,  being  citetl  to  the  Presbytery  and  not  compearing — 

Oc-t.  8,  1673. — "The  brclhreii,  considering  the  great  hurt  their  discipline  sustains  by 
the  non-cuirence  of  the  Indulged  ministers  in  punishing  of  scandals  which,  according  to 
the  custom  and  discipline  of  the  church,  belongs  to  the  cognizance  of  Pi-esbyteries,  there- 
fore (they)  refer  this  earnestly  to  the  Archbishop  and  Synod  for  advice  and  redress.'' 

But  the  Archbishop's  advice  and  authority  notwithstanding,  Stirling's 
status  as  the  minister  of  Kilbarchan,  though  a  Presbyterian,  had  to  be 
recogni.sed,  and  it  was  to  him  and  to  his  session   that  Orr  was  held  to 


'Dec.  2,  1674  — Reported  that  Mr.  Ciiuiiiiigliiuiie  was  conventicling  in  Greenock  and  Inverkip 
and  James  Wallace  in  tlie  house  nf  Barochan. — Piesh.  Hue. 


86  KILBAKCHAN. 

be  accountable  (December  17,  1673;  January  28,  1674).  The  courtier- 
like Laird  of  Beltrees,  however,  in  a  discipline  case  in  which  one  of  his 
kinsmen  was  involved  (November  4,  1674),  overlooked  the  Kirk  Session 
and  submitted  the  case  directly  to  the  Episcopal  Presbytery.  He  did 
this  probably  because  he  was  on  the  outlook  for  a  government  appoint- 
ment and  wished  to  curry  favour  with  those  in  authority. 

In  spite  of  the  Indulgence  which  secured  toleration  for  Presby- 
terianism,  the  country  was  in  anything  but  a  settled  and  contented  condi- 
tion. The  device  of  "  Bonds  of  Lawburrows,"  which  made  a  landlord 
answerable  for  the  conduct  of  his  vassals  and  tenants,  and  an  Intercom- 
muning  Act  (1676),  which  imposed  severe  penalties  on  those  who  had  any 
dealings  with  such  as  frequented  conventicles,  were  successively  tried, 
but  proved  ineffectual  to  put  down  the  popular  conventicle.  The  coun- 
ties of  Ayr  and  Renfrew,  where  conventicles  were  thought  to  be  too 
common  and  where  the  landlords  refused  to  sign  the  bonds  of  lawburrows, 
were  treated  as  a  hostile  country,  and  were  sul>jected  to  the  untender 
mercies  of  an  army  of  occupation.  About  ten  thousand  troops,  con- 
sisting of  Highland  caterans  and  East  Country  Yeomanry,  known  as  the 
Hio'hland  Host,  were  quartered  in  their  midst,  some  in  nearly  every 
parish,  where  they  lived  at  free  quarters.  Though  the  soldiers  were 
nominally  under  the  control  of  a  local  committee  of  the  Priv}^  Council, 
yet  their  depredations  seem  to  have  been  more  extensive,  and  their 
victims  more  numerous,  than  the  commands  they  received  from  head- 
quarters quite  justified.  Kilbarchan  did  not  escape  the  rude  attentions 
of  the  Highland  Host,  and  we  find  the  kindly  William  Cuninghame  of 
Craigends  making  abatements  of  rent  to  two  of  liis  tenants  because  they 
had  been  unfortunate  enough  to  have  these  troops  billeted  on  them  : — 

7  Sept.  1G78. — I  allowed  to  John  Andrew  at  his  rent  paying,  as  disbursed  by  him  for 
maintenance  of  the  souldiers  that  lay  heir  in  March,  £01  12s.  Od. 

5  Oct.  1C78.— I  allowed  to  Jonet  Reid,  at  the  compleiting  of  her  rent,  as  the  half  of 
her  burden  for  the  blew  coat  souldiers  when  they  were  heir,  £09  lis.  8d. 

And  James  Stirling  says,  "when  souldiers  came  to  quarter  in  Kilbarchan, 
he  (John  Stirling)  was  very  carefull  to  visit  their  officers,  and  to  be  very 
civil  to  them.  They  would  have  come  and  visited  him,  and  this  had  a 
great  influence  on  them  to  restrain  them  from  making  any  abuses  in  the 
place.  They  commended  him  in  Haukheid,  to  the  late  Lord  Ross,  as  a 
civil  and  discreet  man  ;  for  my  fixther  was  kind  and  courteouse  in  all  the 
steps  of  his  carriage." 


THE   STIKLIXGS   AND    THEIR   TIME.  87 

On  Sunday,  June  1st,  1G79,  a  skirmish  took  place  at  Drumclog 
between  the  extreme  Presbyterians  or  Covenanters  and  some  Royal  troops 
under  Claverhouse,  in  which  the  former  had  the  advantag-e  ;  and  three 
weeks  later  they  met  again  at  Bothwell  Brig  witli  quite  a  different  result. 
John  Stirling,  "  who  was  much  against  popular  insurrections,  for  he 
thought  they  could  do  no  good,"  "  was  greatly  affected  and  afflicted  with 
many  good  people  then  going  to  Bothwell,  for  he  alwise  said  they  would 
only  make  themselves  a  sacrihce,  and  he  supposed  the  best  of  them  might 
be  destroyed,  as  indeed  it  fell  out.  He  preached  at  that  time  much  on 
Hab.  iii.  16.  I  observed  that  [when]  the  engagement  of  Bothwell  was, 
being  a  Sabbath,  ther  was  a  strange  noise  and  din  in  Kilbarchan  Kirk, 
and  in  other  churches,  in  the  end  of  the  church,  as  if  it  liad  been  some 
seats  fallen  down." 

In  1681  the  famous  Test  Act  became  law,  which  required  all  holding- 
public  appointments  to  swear  tliat  they  owned  the  Protestant  religion  as 
explained  in  the  Confession  of  1567  ;  that  they  acknowledged  the  king  to 
be  supreme  in  all  matters,  civil  or  ecclesiastical  ;  that  without  the  king's 
permission  they  would  never  consult  about  any  matter  of  State,  and  that 
they  would  never  endeavour  any  alteration  in  the  government  of  the 
country.  The  Archbishop  required  the  Presbytery  to  administer  this  oath 
to  all  schoolmasters,  doctors,  and  chaplains  within  the  bounds.  On  4th 
June,  1682,  "James  Cowi,  schoolmaster  in  Kilbarchan,"  is  reported  as  one 
who  has  not  tt'dcd  ;  and  again  on  7th  March,  1683,  "James  Coway  of 
Kilbarchan  "  is  one  of  seven  disorderly  schoolmasters  who  have  not  taken 
the  test,  and  whose  names  are  given  "to  Baily  Paterson,  Sheriff"-Depute 
of  Ptenfrew,  to  be  dealt  with."  If  Cowie  escaped  with  the  loss  of  his 
situation  merely,  he  was  more  fortunate  than  most. 

In  the  long  lists  given  by  Wodrow  '  of  those  who  became  fugitives 
about  this  time  rather  than  conform  to  the  demands  of  the  goveriunent, 
there  occur,  John  Andrew,  son  to  John  Andrew  in  Torhil  in  Kilbarchan, 
and  John  Young  in  Tbrepland,  and  Andrew  and  William  Young,  his  sons. 
Threpland,  however,  may  be  Threj)land  in  Eaglesbam,  not  Threplie  in 
Kilbarcban. 

John  Stirling  died  at  Kilbarchan  in  the  hou.se  now  known  as 
14  Steeple  Street,  on  the  18th  July,  1683,  in  the  thirty-fourth  year  from 
his  ordination.  A  recumbent  slab  near  the  west  door  of  the  old  church 
bearing   the    letters    I.S.    probably    marks    his    grave.      His    wife,  Jean 

^Tlist.,  iv.,  pp.  14  and  fol. 


88  KILBAKCHAX. 

Maxwell,  died  in  1708.  It  was,  according  to  his  son's  account,  his  great 
wish  "  that  when  the  Lord  came  [He]  might  find  him  either  preaching  or 
praying."  On  the  Sunday  three  days  hefore  his  death  lie  preached  as 
usual.  "  I  remember  very  well  the  doctrine  he  had  on  the  Sabbath  was, 
that  true  believers  wer  conform  to  the  image  of  His  Son.  He  showed 
wherein  tliey  wer  conform.  Among  severall  things  he  came  to  this,  thiit 
they  were  to  be  conform  to  Him  in  glory  ;  and  in  speaking  upon  that 
wonderful  glory  he  fell  into  a  sort  of  rapture,  wondering  and  admiring  at 
the  greatness  of  that  glory  ;  it  would  be  so  great  that  the  believer  would 
be  ready  to  misken  himself  and  would  then  cry  out,  '  Is  this  I  ?  Is  this 
unbelieving  I,  that  often  evened  myself  to  hell  ?  Is  this  He,  is  this  He, 
that  I  grieved  and  provoked  so  much,  and  that  I  had  such  undervaluing 
thoughts  of?'  I  remember  also,  that  when  the  people  did  go  to  run 
away  that  day  before  he  bad  said  the  blessing,  he  chapped  on  the  pulpit 
and  said,  '  How  often  have  I  reproved  you  for  this  ?  It's  like  you  would 
be  glad  to  bear  this  within  a  little,  and  ye  shall  not  get  it  ! '  And  so  it 
was,  for  he  never  spake  any  more  to  them  publickly.  After  that,  he  said 
'All  was  done!'  In  the  beginning  of  th;it  dayes  work  there  went 
such  a  stoun  through  his  body,  that  he  thought  he  should  have  stoped 
from  speaking  anything  at  all  ;  but  that  p.u'n  went  oft'  him,  and  he 
proceeded,  and  preached  both  forenoon  iuid  afternoon."  "  And  on  Mon- 
day he  went  large  two  miles  to  see  a  sick  person  at  Auchindinnan  Mill 
(now  St.  Bride's),  and  went  u|)  to  Lochwinnoch  to  bury  a  gentleman  of 
the  name  of  Ramsay,  who  had  died  most  suddenly  playing  at  the  bullets. 
He  was  of  tlie  house  of  Dervisse  (Dalliousie),  where  my  father  had  been 
chaplain  some  time.  He  came  well  home  to  Kilbarchan.  On  the  Monday 
evening  he  caused  me  to  walk  with  him  doun  to  Johnstouii,  about  half  a 
mile  from  his  own  house.  He  made  exercise  there  and  supped  ;  and  I 
came  home  with  him,  and  he  made  exercise  in  his  own  house  and  went  to 
his  bed  that  night  better  than  he  had  done  ten  weeks  before.  But  Tues- 
day morning  early,  about  three  or  four  in  the  morning,  he   takes  a  great 

unweelness  in  his  stomach He  lay  the  most  part  of  that  day 

and  sleeped  and  souched  nou  and  then  ....  He  seemed  to  grou  a 
litle  better  in  the  evening,  and  sat  up  a  litle  and  talked  some  to  a  gentle- 
woman who  came  to  visit  him.  My  mother  would  have  had  my  sister 
Elizabeth  sent  for,  who  was  then  at  Blackstoun,  about  three  miles  from 
the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan.  He  appeared  angry  at  my  mother  and  said, 
'  Ye  will  still  make  a  noyse  and  all  the  country  adoe  with  my  unweelness!' 
Aye  the  nearer  it  came  to  night  he  greu  the  worse.     We 


THE   STIRLINGS   AND   THEIR   TIME.  89 

sent  for  Dr.  Johnstoun,  but  it  was  to  noe  purpose.  The  Doctor  called  his 
disease  an  overflowing  of  the  gall ;  within  a  very  litle  time  he  greu  so 
weak  that  he  could  not  speak  to  us.  We  saw  him  much  taken  up  and 
exercised.  We  asked  him  how  it  was  with  him  ?  He  answered  it  was 
all  well !  Yet  he  held  out  his  hand  to  me  and  looked  to  me,  but  could 
not  speak.  My  mother  said  to  him,  '  Will  you  not  leave  your  blessing  to 
me  and  your  bairns  V  He  said.  '  I  have  not  that  to  do  till  nou  ! '  So  on 
Wednesday  morning,  being  July  18,  1683,  he  dyed  about  seven  of  the 
clock." 

Tlie  son,  who  has  very  carefully  gathered  up  and  put  on  record  all 
the  favourable  remarks  made  of  his  father  as  a  man  and  a  minister, 
admits  that  "  he  had  not  at  all  the  gift  of  eloquent  speaking  about  him, 
bathe  was  very  solid  and  mighty  Scripturall."  "When  he  was  well 
assisted  in  preaching  ye  would  have  thought  him  smiling  when  he  uttei-ed 
some  sweet  expressions.  He  spoke  ordinarily  with  great  affection  and 
fervency  and  vehemency,  so  that  he  was  very  weary  when  he  ended 
his  Sabbath  dayes  work." 

He  prepared  carefully  for  his  pulpit  duties,  but  he  was  not 
above  preaching  old  sermons,  or  at  least  of  deliberately  making  use 
of  old  material.  "  His  servant,  Robert  Paislay,  observed  him  to 
pray  a  great  part  of  the  Saturday,  having  studied  his  sermon  before  ; 
and  he  would  have  overheard  him  saying  to  God,  '  Lord,  we  have  been 
thinking  on  somewhat  to  be  spoken  to  this  people,  but  if  thou  see  it 
not  fitt  for  them,  O  will  thou  suggest  somewhat  to  me  that  Thou  see 
will  be  more  fitt  for  them.'  "  "  His  eyes  did  much  fail  him  before  his 
death,  so  that  he  could  not  read  his  old  notes  ;  he  would  have  called 
me,  and  I  would  have  read  them  to  him,  being  well  acquainted  with 
his  hand.  He  would  have  caused  me  to  sitt  down  and  write  some 
notes  of  his  sermon  to  him  ;  and  such  was  his  moderty  (modesty)  and 
humility,  that  he  would  have  said  to  me,  Wliat  would  ye  say  more 
than  this  ?  I  told  him  that  I  was  not  one  that  could  help  him 
by  my  invention."  "That  good  man  John  Knox  would  have  said  of 
my  father — '  O  !  but  Mr.  John  Stirling  is  a  man  of  great  faith.'"  "  He 
had  very  much  sound  substantial!  matter  in  all  his  sermons.  Sir 
George  Maxwell  unce  said  to  him  at  the  Communion  of  Stevi^arton — 
'  Mr.  John,  you  are  a  very  ill  steward,  for  you  might  have  made  two 
or  three  preachings  of  this  one  ye  have  nou  delivered  ! '  He  had  so 
much  matter  in  it."  "  Some  knouing  Christian  said  of  my  father 
that  he  was  '  a  solid   sicker  preacher,    and    a   good  sole-aground  (sheet 

M 


90  KILBARCHAN. 

anchor  or  one  standing  firm  on  level  ground).'  Mr.  Hutcheson,  his 
neighbour  in  Kilellan,  said,  '  I  was  made  to  admire  him  for  his  great 
wisdom  and  prudence,  and  his  great  gift  of  preaching.  Particularly  at 
one  of  my  Communions  he  preached  on  the  Munday  most  notable  on  that 
text,  Heb.  iv.  7.  I  scarce  ever  heard  a  greater  sermon,  and  I  thought 
after  that  I  would  think  shame  to  go  and  preach  to  my  people  after  him, 
for,  said  he,  I  thought  my  preaching  would  never  gust  in  their  gab  after 
that  they  had  heard  such  a  choice  and  notable  sermon.'  "  One  Thomas 
Hall  deserves  to  be  kindly  remembered  for  the  quiet  but  effective  manner 
in  which  he  encouraged  the  minister.  Stirling  was  preaching  one  day  on 
Luke  xix.  14,  "  when  he  beheld  the  city,  he  wept  over  it "  and  "  thought 
himself  much  deserted  and  greatly  straited  and  compleaned  of  this  to 
Thomas  Hall.  Thomas  said  to  him,  '  When  ye  but  read  your  text,  it  was 
preaching  enough  to  me!'  Yet  my  father  could  not  be  satisfied  till  he 
preached  again  on  the  same  text ;  and  got  great  liberty  and  enlargement 
of  spirit,  and  the  good  old  laird  of  Craigends,  Alexander  Cuninghanie, 
wrote  it  and  read  it  over  to  his  family  with  a  great  deal  of  affection  and 
seriousnes." 

Stirling  would  appear  to  have  been  a  grave,  silent,  reticent  man,  as 
became  one  who  lived  in  times  of  persecution.  He  talked  little  himself, 
except  in  the  pulpit,  and  disliked  much  talk  in  others  :  "  My  father 
greatly  abhorred  a  talkative  temper  of  speaking  too  much.  He  called 
them  '  a  bagg  of  clatter '  "  "  He  was  "  (for  his  time,  and  compared  with 
most,  we  presume)  "  very  short  in  family  prayer.  He  followed  what 
great  Mr.  Dickson  directed  him  to  do  as  to  that  :  and  all  his  public 
preaching  and  prayer.  .  .  .  He  used  much  that  expression,  in  his 
family  prayer,  '  O,  that  thou  would  make  us  seriouse  and  single,  and  pour 
floods  on  our  dry  ground.'  " 


III.— James    Stirling,    168S-1699. 

James  Stirling,  the  eldest  son  of  John  Stirling,  Minister  of  Kil- 
barchan,  whose  biography  of  his  father  we  have  so  frequently  quoted 
from,  was  probably  born  in  the  old  manse,  now  14  Steeple  Street,  in  or 
after  the  year  1654.  Wodrow  tells  us  that  he  "was  very  piouse  and 
seriouse.  When  about  six  or  seven  years  old,  he  was  still  praying  when 
in  the  louest  classe  of  the  Grammar  School.  When  he  had  finished  his 
lessons  he  would  have  taken  out  his  Bible  and  fallen  to  reading  it,  and 


THE   STIRLINGS   AND   THEIR   TIME.  91 

then  with  his  head  in  a  nook  prayed."  His  father  liad  early  directed 
his  mind  towards  sacred  things  :  "  I  reraerabei-,"  he  says,  "  my  father 
desired  me  and  my  brother  (possibly  the  future  Principal  of  Glasgow 
University)  to  set  down  in  write  our  observations  on  God's  special  provi- 
dences towards  us,  for,  he  said,  he  was  very  faulty  in  that  himself,  in  that 
he  had  not  written  severall  things  anent  his  Christian  exercise."  Intel- 
lectually James  was  not  so  promising  a  boy  as  his  brother  John,  for  whom 
the  most  brilliant  career  was  prophesied,  but  he  was  blessed  with  a  more 
equable  and  hopeful  temperament  :  "  My  father  would  have  desired  me 
to  speak  to  my  brother  John  when  he  was  much  exercised  and  troubled. 
I  answered,  '  Sir,  you  are  more  fitt  to  deal  with  him  than  I,  and  I  wonder 
much  that  you  should  desire  me  to  speak  to  him,  who  am  but  a  novice, 
when  compared  with  you.'  He  said,  '  He.  will  readily  take  more  heed  to 
what  ye  say  to  him  than  to  what  I  shall  say.' " 

James  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Glasgow  (Presbyterian) 
on  December  21,  1687.  Paisley  Presbytery  was  not  re-constituted 
until  December  27,  1G87.  On  March  12,  1688,  Craigends  appeared 
before  the  Presbytery  desiring  its  concurrence  "  in  order  to  ane  call  to 
be  given  to  Mr.  James  Stirling,  probationer."  A  call  was  afterwards 
found  to  be  "  very  unanimously  subscrived,"  and  Mr.  Stirling  was  taken 
on  trials  with  a  view  to  his  ordination.  Having  passed  his  examination, 
he  was  ordained  on  the  8th  June  "  by  fasting,  prayer,  and  the  imposition 
of  hands,"  probably  not  in  the  Church  but  in  a  Meeting-house  which  had 
been  erected  under  Craigends'  supervision.  The  venerable  Hew  Peibles 
(Lochwinnoch)  who  had  preached  at  the  father's  ordination,  presided  also 
at  the  son's.  During  the  first  year  of  his  ministry,  1688-9,  Mr.  James 
appears  to  have  conducted  public  worship)  in  the  Meeting-house.  A  lost 
minute  book  of  Kilbarchan  Kirk  Session  is  believed  to  contain  the 
record  : — 

16th  June,  1689. — We  left  the  Meeting-house  and  took  up  the  Church. 

In  removing  to  the  Church  when  they  did,  the  Kilbarchan  people  some- 
what anticipated  the  decisions  of  Parliament,  for  the  Acts  abolishing 
Prelacy,  restoring  the  Presbyterian  ministers,  and  establishing  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  are  dated  July  22,  1689,  and  April  25,  June  7, 
1690.  The  Parish  Church  probably  remained  unoccupied  since  the 
rabbling  of  the  curate,  if  indeed  Wilson,  the  Kilbarchan  ciu-ate,  waited  to 
be  rabbled  in  December,  1688. 


92  KILBAKCHAN. 

The  many  public  duties  entrusted  to  James  Stirling  may  be  taken  as 
evidence  that  his  brethren  had  the  utmost  confidence  in  his  judgment. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  various  committees  charged  with  such  delicate 
matters  as  settling  the  boundaries  of  Eastwood  and  Lochvvinnoch,  dealing 
with  the  heritors  of  Erskine  and  Houston  to  get  ministers  for  their 
parishes  which  had  been  too  long  vacant,  getting  men  to  accept  the  office 
of  the  eldership  in  Houston,  and  compelling  the  heritors  of  Mearns  to 
repair  the  church.  He  was  also  treasurer  of  the  Presbytery's  Bursary 
Fund,  the  revenue  of  which  came  partly  from  charitable  contributions  and 
partly  from  an  assessment  levied  on  the  various  ministers,  and  tlie  bene- 
ficiaries of  which  were  "  lads  o'  pairts  "  in  poor  circumstances  whose  aim 
was  the  pulpit. 

From  the  fact  that  he  was  more  than  once  sent  to  supply  important 
charges  which  were  without  settled  ministers,  we  may  conclude  that  Mr. 
Stirling  was  considered  a  good  preacher. 

13th  March,  IGOl. — Mr.  .Ja.  Stirling  was  nppoyiited  to  supplie  tbe  people  of  Stirling 
on  Sabboth  come  a  fortnight. 

27th  Julj%  1G92. — Mr.  Mathw.  Cranford  appointed  to  preach  at  Kilbarchati  Sabuth 
come  a  fourtnight  for  Mr.  Jam.  Stirling  going  to  the  North. 

13th  May,  1G96. — Whereas  Mr.  Ja.  Stirling  was  appointed  by  the  Gnall.  Assembly  to 
go  in  the  first  mission  to  Aberdeen  and  having  all  along  declared  and  still  declares  to  the 
presb.  that  he  was  and  is  still  unclear  to  obey  the  sentence ;  .  .  .  .  (the  presbytery), 
do  earnestly  entreat  and  beseech  yr.  brother  Mr.  Ja.  Stirling  yet  more  thoroughly  to  con- 
sider the  case  in  order  to  the  obtaining  of  light  that  he  may  repair  to  Aberdeen  with  all 
convenient  dispatch  and  oblest.  him  that  whatever  reluctance  he  may  have,  he  would  yield 
to  his  mission  rather  than  lay  himself  by  from  the  exercise  of  his  ministry. 

Six  weeks  later,  in  spite  of  this  expostulation,  he  is  still  in  Kilbarchan, 
but  by  July  22nd  he  has  gone,  and  the  brethren  are  making  the  necessary 
arrangements  for  the  supply  of  his  pulpit  during  his  temporary  absence. 

On  June  22,  1698,  Commissioners  from  Glasgow  appeared  at  Paisley 
with  a  call  for  Stirling  to  the  Barony,  and  five  months  later,  before  the 
Barony  call  was  disposed  of,  a  call  came  to  him  from  Aberdeen.  The  latter 
was  expeditiously  enough  dealt  with,  but  the  Glasgow  call  was  quite  a 
different  matter.  The  Kilbarchan  people  indeed  strongly  objected  to 
their  minister  leaving  them  ;  there  were  also  technical  informalities  which 
occasioned  delay,  and  perhaps  on  this  occasion  also  Stirling  "  had  no  clear- 
ness "  to  go. 

As  their  miui.ster  was  under  a  call,  the  parishioners  of  Kilbarchan 
had  to  be  summoned  to  the  bar  of  the  Presbytery  in  their  own  interest. 


THE   STIKLINGS   AND    THEIR   TIME.  93 

The  Presbytery's  officer  when  serving  the  edict  was  given  the  best  of 
reasons  to  remember  his  visit  to  Kilbarchan  : — 

13th  July,  1698. —  ....  there  was  produced  a  paper  subt.  by  the  officer  and 
two  witnesses  bearini;  that  when  they  went  to  execute  the  summons  according  to  the 
presbs.  warrant,  they  were  fallen  upon,  pitifully  abused,  and  deforced  by  the  people  of  Kil- 
barchan, so  that  they  could  not  do  their  business. 

The  Presbytery  held,  iiowever,  that  the  jKui.'sliioriers  liad  been  duly  cited 
and  resolved  '"  for  the  preventing  the  sad  profimation  of  the  Lord's  Day 
and  other  bad  consequents"  that  in  future  ministers  under  call  should 
themselves  read  the  necessary  edict. 

Besides  deforcing  the  officer,  the  Kilbarchan  parishioners  took  other 
measures,  more  constitutional  however,  to  retain  if  possible  the  services  of 
Mr.  Stirling.  At  the  visitation  of  the  parish  [July  2S,  1698],  the  heritors 
and  elders  being  asked,  "  Whether  they  knew  anything  gravaminous  to 
Mr.  Stirling  in  his  present  circumstances  1 "  answered  that  "  they  had 
heard  him  sometimes  complaine  that  yr.  was  not  a  Civill  Magistrate  in  the 
Paroch  for  executing  the  law  agt.  prophanity,  nor  a  settled  encouragmt. 
for  a  schoolm''."  These,  however,  were  matters  speedily  remedied.  The 
heritors  and  elders  retired  and  returning  in  a  little,  reported  that  they  had 
chosen  Johnstoun  (George  Houstoun)  Civil  Magistrate,  and  that  they  were 
"  to  stent  the  paroch  in  ane  hundred  merks  yearly  for  the  maintenance  of 
a  schoolm'."  In  spite  of  all  the  inducements  which  Kilbarchan  could 
oifer,  Stirling  went  to  the  Barony,  and  Kilbarchan  was  reported  vacant 
on  July  18,  1699.  The  reason  of  Stirling's  popularity  is  not  far  to  seek; 
stubborn  he  may  have  been,  buL  lie  never  spared  himself  At  a  Presby- 
tery visitation,  April  27,  1692,  his  elders  "  all  gave  him  a  good  testimony 
concerning  his  edifying  gift  of  preaching,  his  faithfulness  and  laborious- 
ness  in  his  work,  and  his  exemplary  walk,  and  that  he  was  to  be  encour- 
aged and  exhorted  to  be  more  tender  of  his  own  health." 

Two  years  after  James  Stirling's  translation  to  the  Barony,  his 
brother  John,  successively  Minister  of  Inchinnan  and  of  Greenock,  became 
Principal  of  Glasgow  College,  as  the  University  was  then  styled, 
September  18,  1701,  and  in  1707  he  was  chosen  Moderator  of  the  General 
Assembly.  Kilbarchan  has  never  since  been  so  well  represented  in  the 
higher  ecclesiastical  and  educational  circles. 

It  is  to  the  close  and  intimate  friendship  existing  between  the 
Stirlings  and  Robert  Wodrow  of  Eastwood,  whose  mother,  by  the  way, 
was  Margaret  Hare  of  Pennell  in   Kilbarchan,  that  we   owe   most  of  the 


94  KILBARCHAN. 

information  we  possess  regarding  the  Minister  of  the  Barony  and  his 
brother  the  Principal.  Of  the  Principal,  Wodrow  had  an  especially  high 
opinion ;  it  was  John  Stirling,  he  says,  who  prevailed  on  him  to  write 
his  history.  The  Principal  was  frequently  at  the  manse  of  Eastwood 
on  such  occasions  as  communions,  or  the  baptism  of  one  or  other  of  the 
innumerable  little  W^'odrows  ;  and  James  Stirling  supplied  more  than 
one  chatty  article  to  the  Arudecta,  which  has  been  described  as  perhaps 
the  most  interesting  book  in  the  English  language.  This  long-continued 
friendship,  however,  became  somewhat  strained  when  James  Stirling 
took  the  side  of  his  son-in-law.  Professor  Simpson,  when  accused 
of  heresy  in  1729. 

James  Stirling  was  Minister  of  the  Barony  from  1699  until  1736, 
and  would  be  the  aged  clergyman  who  preached  in  the  Cathedral  Crypt, 
the  Barony  Laigh  Kirk,  when  that  notable  trio,  Osbaldistone,  Andrew 
Fairservice,  and  Rob  Pioy,^  were  amongst  the  congregation,  if  they  ever 
were  there. 

Though  we  have  no  reason  to  think  that  he  was  more  superstitious 
than  most  of  his  time,  it  surprises  us  that  one  who  was  Minister  of  Kil- 
barchan  and  of  the  Barony  should  gravely  note  such  portents  as  these  : — 
"  I  observed  the  ratts  did  most  violently  rage  in  my  father's  house  a  little 
before  his  death.  They  would  have  come  down  severals  of  them  together 
to  the  meal.  We  were  necessitat  to  poison  them.  They  did  rage  most 
violently  in  my  house,  1699,  a  litle  before  I  left  Kilbarchan  and  came  to 
the  Barony  ;  and  fell  on  my  books,  especially  some  of  Mr.  Rutherford's 
Letters.  That  day  he  [his  father]  was  buryed  ther  wer  two  great 
candles  burning  in  the  chamber,  and  they  did  go  out  most  surprisingly 
without  any  wind  causing  them  to  go  out."  -  He  also  tells,  as  has  been 
already  noted,  of  the  portentous  noise  in  Kilbarchan  Church  on  the  Sun- 
day of  Bothwell  Brig.  There  is  a  Kilbarchan  tradition  (my  informant  is 
Mr.  David  King,  High  Barholm)  that  at  the  time  he  received  so  many 
calls,  he  assured  his  anxious  and  devoted  congregation  from  the  pulpit 
that  he  would  never  leave  them  so  long  as  a  certain  rock  on  the  Barhill 
remained  in  its  place.  The  rock,  however,  to  the  surprise  of  the  minister 
and  people,  actually  fell  without  human  intervention,  and  he  accepted  this 


'■  Mob  Roy,  Chap.  xx. 

■•^  Thomas  Bruce,  one  of  King  Charles  II. 's  body  servants,  says  that  the  candles  with  which 
he  was  lighting  the  King  to  his  bed  chamber  the  night  before  his  fatal  seizure,  were  mysteriously 
extinguished  without  any  blast  of  wind. — Charles  II.,  by  Osmund  Airy. 


THE  STIRLIXGS   AND   THEIR  TIME.  Q5- 

as  an  indubitable  sign  that  it  was  his  duty  to  leave.  Though  he  took  no 
active  part  in  the  Bargarren  witchcraft  trial,  he  was  one  of  the  three 
ministers  appointed  to  confer  as  frequently  as  tliey  could  with  the  seven 
persons  who  were  condemned  to  death,  and  very  possibly  he  was  actually 
present  at  their  execution  [June  10,  1697]. 

James  Stirling  was  married  to  a  Margaret  Dunlop — whether  a  half- 
sister  of  Wodrow,  or  a  daughter  of  Alexander  Dunlop  of  Paisley  or 
of  another  family  altogether,  we  do  not  know.  They  had  two  daughters, 
Jean  and  Elizabeth — one  of  whom  married  a  John  Paisley  and  the  other 
Professor  Simpson,  who  was  suspended  perpetually  for  heresy — and  a  son 
Alexander,  a  shipmaster.  On  his  death  in  1736,  James  Stirling 
bequeathed  three  hundred  merks,  the  interest  on  which  was  intended  to 
provide  Bibles  and  catechisms  for  poor  children  attending  school  in  the 
Barony  Parish.  The  Principal  left  in  his  will  £100  Scots,  for  the  poor 
of  Kilbarchan. 


CHAPTER   VI. 
The  Cubates  in  Kilbarchan. 


Virtue  I'd  have  you  understaud, 

Is  strangely  various  in  its  hue  ; 
Yours  tallies  with  the  titles  grand, 

Your  lackey  bawls  in  front  of  you  ! 
They  to  the  highest  stilts  resort 
Who  most  at  heart  to  mud  are  prone— 
Lisa,  if  you  ever  go  to  Court 

I'll — leave  your  character  alone  ! 

— Beranrjer,  translated  by  Toynbef. 


Scottish  Episcopacy  as  by  law  established — The  Curates — Their  Church  service — David  Pierson — 
Visitation  of  Kilbarchan — A  rejected  elder — Provision  for  a  schoolmaster — Refusing  to  be  an 
elder — Throwing  snowballs  into  the  Church — A  Kilbarchan  lady  at  Houston  Church — Un- 
baptised  children — A  breach  of  promise — An  unbridled  tongue — Lord  Sempill  again  to  be 
interviewed — Charities — The  unlicensed  chaplain  at  Johnstone — A  faithful  curate — Archibald 
Wilson — His  session — Preparing  for  a  Communion — Reformation  of  Kilbarchan  morals  and 
manners — Tlie  minister  sued  by  a  maid-servant — Contemporary  political  events — Kilbarchan 
Presbyterian  Meeting  House — Rabbling  the  Curates. 

During  the  ten  years  [1663-1G72]  when  John  Stirling  as  an  uuted 
Minister  was  forbidden  to  reside  in  his  parish  and  could  visit  it  only  by 
stealth,  and  again  during  the  interval  between  his  death  in  1683  and  his 
son's  ordination  in  1688,  Kilbarchan  was  not  entirely  destitute  of  religious 
ordinances.  These  were  supplied  by  Episcopalian  ministers,  known  in 
Scotland  as  the  Curates.^  Generally  speaking,  the  Curates  were  most  un- 
popular. This  was  to  be  expected,  since  their  services  were  forced  upon 
an  unwilling  people,  who,  in  spite  of  conscientious  scruples,  were  to  some 
extent  bound  to  give  attendance  at  church. 

The  Curates  were  sometimes  men  whose  moral  character  was  not  above 
suspicion.  John  Hay,  the  deposed  Presbyterian  Minister  of  Renfrew,  was 
reponed  as  a  Parson,  or  Curate,  and  was  the  first  Moderator  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Paisley  (Episcopal).  Sometimes  they  were  raw  lads  not  twenty  years 
old.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  some  Curates  were  men  as  well  educated  and 
as  worthy  of  respect  as  the  Presbyterian  Ministers  whom  they  superseded. 

'  fr.  Cure' =  vicar,  rector  or  parson 


THE   CURATES   IN    KILBAKCHAX.  97 

As  far  as  the  externals  of  public  worship  were  concerned,  the  Church 
Service,  as  conducted  by  the  Curates,  differed  very  little  from  the  service  to 
which  the  people  had  been  accustomed  under  their  Presbyterian  Ministers. 
There  was  no  special  ceremony,  no  surplice,  no  altar,  and.  at  baptism 
the  sign  of  the  Cross  was  not  made.  The  Curates,  however,  did  repeat 
the  Doxology  (Glory  he  to  the  Father,  kc.)  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and 
tried  to  get  the  people  to  repeat  the  words  after  them  ;  at  Baptism  they  re- 
quired acquiescence  to  the  Creed,  perhaps  the  repetition  of  it  also;  they  had 
to  acknowledge  the  authority  of  their  bishop,  but,  of  course,  this  in  no 
way  affected  the  parishioners.  Of  this  class  of  Ministers  Kilbarchan  liad 
two— David  Pierson  [1GG4-70]  and  Archibald  Wilson  or  Gled  [1G83-8]. 


J_^Z)avid  Fierson,   1664-70. 

David  Pierson  was  the  son  of  Mr.  Thomas  Pierson,  Minister  of  For- 
far. He  was  educated  at  St.  Salvator's  College,  St.  Andrews,  and 
graduated  there  8th  October,  1G62.  He  pas.sed  his  trials  before  the 
Presbytery  of  Paisley  (Episcopal)  in  April,  1G64,  and  was  probably  settled 
in  Kilbarchan  immediately  thereafter.  lu  Octol^er,  his  brethren  as  a  Pres- 
bytery made  a  visitation  of  the  Parish,  and  the  condition  of  things  ecclesi- 
astical which  they  found,  cannot  be  considered  unsatisfactory  : — 

Kilbarchan,  27th  Oct.,  1664. — The  names  of  the  elders  the  minister  did  nominate 
being  cited  and  called  by  the  officer  at  the  church  doors  ;  those  men  compearing  are 
ordained  by  the  Presbyterie  to  accept  of  the  said  office,  and  in  case  they  obstinately  refuse 
the  minister  is  appointed  to  give  up  their  names  to  the  Archbishop  in  order  to  their  being 
sumoned  before  the  High  Comission.  Only  one,  Robert  Semple,  is  represented  as  unfit  for 
the  office  because  of  his  being  overtaken  twice  with  drink  of  late,  and  therefore  the  Presby- 
tery excludes  him  from  that  office  and  ordains  him  to  make  his  public  repentance  for  his 
drunkenness  two  several  Lord's  Dayes  and  to  pay  forty  shillings  Scots  in  penaltie. 

The  heritors  and  others  interested  in  the  parish  being  called  to  say  qt.  they  had  to  say 
agt.  thr.  minister,  none  of  them  compeared  to  say  ought  either  agt.  his  doctrine  or  his 
life  and  conversation. 

The  minister  of  the  place  (David  Pierson)  being  called  and  gravely  advised  to  be  con- 
scientious and  diligent  in  his  duty,  was  interrogated  what  he  would  have  reformed  or 
amended  in  the  parish  he  was  in  :  complained  that  his  manse  was  ruinous  through 
age  and  insufficient.  The  justness  of  W^''  complaint  the  Presbytery  by  viewing  of  the  s  [aid 
manse]  doe  find  and  therefore  ordains  the  parochiners  to  repair  the  s  [aid  manse]  with  all 
convenient  diligence,  and  appoint  the  minister  to  raise  1  [etters]  of  horning  agt.  the  paroch 
for  this  effect. 

He  complaines  he  wants  a  gleeb  sufficient,  having  only  three  akers.  The  Presbyterie 
therefore  ordaines  him  to  see  where  church  land  lyes  against  the  2'  December  qn.  so  many 

N 


98  KILBARCHAN. 

of  the  brethren  are  to  meet  for  the  designation  of  a  sufficient  glebe  according  to  the  Act  of 
Parliament. 

Ordaines  the  minister  to  make  intima'n  the  next  Sabbath  that  the  heritors  and  elders 
of  the  paroch  meet  for  the  providing  a  hundredth  pound  of  mantainance  for  a  sufficiently 
qualified  schoolmaster  to  the  place,  and  that  they  stent  themselves  for  the  same,  which  if 
they  refuse  to  doe  the  minister  is  ordained  to  raise  letters  of  horning  agt.  the  paroch  for  this 
end. 

An  entry  nearly  a  year  later  raises  grave  doubts  as  to  whether  all  nomin- 
ated by  the  Minister  acce23ted  office  as  elders  and  devoted  themselves 
with  energy  to  their  duties  : — 

7th  Aug.,  1665. — John  Spear,  parishioner  in  Kilbarchan,  being  summoned  by  his 
minister  to  give  a  reason  why  he  w^  not  concur  w''  him  in  the  exercise  of  discipline,  was 
called  and  compeared  and  finding  that  he  could  alledge  no  just  reason  for  his  refusall,  they 
appoint  Mr.  Dav.  Pearsone  to  have  him  summoned  to  the  High  Commissione  if  he  continue 
obstinate. 

In  many  parishes  the  Curates  were  subjected  to  a  good  deal  of  petty 
persecution,  and  sometimes  even  to  assault.  David  Pierson,  however,  had 
very  little  reason  to  complain  of  the  conduct  of  hi.s  parishioners,  yet — 

10th  Feb.,  1CG5. — James  Euine  in  Kilbarchine  being  sumoned  and  called  for  interrupt- 
ing the  minister  of  the  place  (by  casting  snowballs  into  the  church)  in  time  of  divine  service 
upon  a  week  day,  compeared  not  and  is  appointed  to  be  sumoned  pro  2*^°  agt.  the  next 
dyat. 

2nd  March,  1665. — James  Euine  in  the  paroch  of  Kilbarchine  being  called,  compeared 
and  judicially  acknowledged  his  fault,  and  is  further  appointed  to  make  a  public  confession 
of  his  fault  before  the  congregation. 

A  Kilbarchan  lady  of  strong  mind  and  pronounced  views  made 
Houston  Church  the  scene  of  her  protestation  : — 

2iid  Nov.,  1665. — The  minister  of  Houstoune  gave  in  a  complent  against  one  Janet 
Alex',  parishioner  in  Kilbarchan,  for  interrupting  him  in  the  tyme  of  divine  service ;  they 
appoint  the  minister  of  Kilbarchan  to  summon  the  said  Janet  to  the  next  Presbyterie  day. 

Though  summoned,  she  failed  for  some  time  to  put  in  an  appearance,  but 
at  last — 

22nd  March,  1666.— Janet  Alexander  forsaid  being  summoned  pro  tertio  according  to 
appointment  was  calit,  compearing  and  confessed  the  haynousness  of  her  sine  formentioned, 
she  is  ordained  to  goe  to  the  Kirk  of  Houstoune  and  upon  her  knees  give  public  satisfac- 
tione  before  the  congregatione  upon  the  Lord's  Day  next  ensuing. 

The  more  staunch  Presbyterians  to  mark  the  disfavour  in  which  they 
held  the  curates  did   not   willingly  bring    their  children   to  them  to  be 


THE   CURATES   IN   KILBARCHAX.  99 

"baptised,  but  "  kept  tliem  up,  unbaptised,"  probably  in  the  hope  that  an 
opportunity  might  occur  of  getting  the  ceremony  performed  by  one  of  the 
outed  Ministers.     This  constituted  a  very  grave  offence : — 

31st  Aug.,  1665. — Robert  Miller,  Thomas  Breding,  and  Ninian  Alkine,  parishioners  ia 
Kilbarchan,  being  summoned  by  their  minister  for  keeping  up  their  children  unbaptised  for 
a  considerable  space  are  called  and  compeared  not ;  they  appoint  them  to  be  summoned 
pro  2'"'. 

In  a  fortnight  Ninian  Aikine  yielded,  promising  all  satisfaction  ;  but  the 
other  two  being  obstinate,  were  summoned  before  the  Archbishop  and 
Synod  of  Glasgow.  Before  the  end  of  October,  however,  the  minister 
reported  that  they  too  had  given  satisfaction. 

If  we  take  the  number  of  cases  of  discipline  reported  to  the  Presby- 
tery as  a  test  of  ministerial  diligence,  we  must  admit  that  Mr.  David 
Pierson  was  quite  as  efficient  a  Minister  as  Mr.  Stirling.  It  was  just  after 
his  settlement  that  the  attention  of  the  Presbytery  was  directed  to  the 
following  interesting  case  : — 

21st  July,  1664. — John  Climing  in  the  Paroch  of  Kilbarchine,  and  Alison  Simpson  in 
the  Paroch  of  Pasley,  compearing  before  the  Presbyterie,  the  woman  alledgiiig  a  promise 
of  marriage  and  the  man  denying.  The  Presbyterie  (it  being  a  civil  thing)  referred  them 
to  the  comissary  and  ordinary  judge  for  the  determining  of  that  controversie. 

During  Pierson's  incumbency,  case  after  case  from  Kilbarchan  which 
sheds  a  lurid  light  on  the  morals  of  the  time,  is  reported  to  the  Presby- 
tery ;  and  the  Episcopalians  were  no  less  severe  in  their  sentences  than 
the  Presbyterians  were  : — 

27th  March,  1669. — This  day  one  William  Widdcrspoone  and  Elizabeth  G  ....  in  the 
paroch  of  Kilbarchine  compeared  and  in  sack  cloth  confessed  their  being  guilty  of  that 
hey  nous  sin  [adultery].  The  Presby.  having  gravely  rebuked  them  did  injoyne  them  to 
give  public  satisfaction  in  the  Church  of  Kilbarchine  by  standing  half  a  year  in  sackcloth 
and  paying  fourtie  pounds  of  penaltie  and  to  enter  upon  their  public  repentance  the  next 
Lord's  day. 

Some  Kilbarchan  ladies  of  the  period  had  easy  manners  and  unbridled 
tongues : — 

29th  Sept.,  166s. — This  day  Isobell  Alexander,  spouse  to  John  Breadie  in  Blackstoune, 
was  sumoned  to  this  dyat,  by  virtue  of  a  reference  from  the  session  of  Kilbarchine  for 
sentencing  the  said  Isobell  Alex'  q°  had  asserted  that  the  Lady  Blackstoune  had  called  her 
the  Laird  of  Newark's  loune,  and  succumbed  in  the  probation  of  the  slander. 

The  Presbytery  in  this  case  wisely  suspended  judgment,  and  referred  the 
matter  to  the  Archbishop  and  Synod  for  advice,  and  no  more  is  heard  of  it. 


100  .  KILBAECHAN. 

The  Episcopalian  Presbytery  were  to  all  appearance  as  anxious  as 
their  predecessors,  the  Presbyterians,  had  been,  to  deliver  Lord  Sempill  and 
his  family  from  the  errors  of  Ptome;  and  David  Pierson,  like  John  Stirling, 
was  one  of  those  appointed  to  confer  in  private  with  his  lordship.  The 
eiforts  of  the  Episcopalians  met  with  as  little  success  as  the  efforts  of  the 
Presbyterians.  For  nearly  four  years  deputation  after  deputation  pro- 
poses conference  and  his  lordship  makes  the  old  excuses,  until — 

23rd  Ap.,  1668. — For  my  Lord  Semple,  the  Archbishop  in  the  Synod  declared  that  his 
Majesties  Honourable  Privy  Counsel!  did  look  upon  him  as  excomunicated  so  that  the 
Presbyterie  is  no  longer  to  treat  with  him  for  further  conference. 

It  was,  of  course,  good  policy  on  the  part  of  the  Curates,  considering  the 
strongly  Protestant  spirit  which  animated  their  flocks,  to  make  this  dis- 
play of  their  Protestant  zeal  against  Lord  Sempill,  and  perhaps  it  was 
good  policy  in  them,  too,  to  be  so  puritanic  as  to  fine  Robert  Finne  "  £6 
Scots  for  bringing  a  bagpipe  through  the  town  of  Paisley  at  his  marriage  " 
[August  18,  1664]. 

The  number  and  nature  of  the  charities  in  which  the  Presbytery  of 
curates  showed  an  interest,  must  not  be  passed  by  without  notice.  Col- 
lections were  made  in  the  churches  from  time  to  time  for  distressed 
jDersons  such  as  "James  Finney  of  Greenock,  who  had  his  house  and  all  he 
had  with  a  sister  of  his  own  burnt"  [31st  March,  1664];  for  public  im- 
provements, though  the  place  where  the  money  was  expended  might  be  a 
long  way  from  the  contributing  area,  e.g.,  Kilbarchan  gave  contributions 
for  the  harbours  of  Inverkeithing  and  Kelburn,  for  a  bridge  at  Ancrum, 
and  for  the  chui^ch  of  Jedburgh.  The  Presbytery  also  provided  a  bursary 
for  a  student  studying  theology  at  Glasgow,  and  each  kirk  session  was 
expected  to  contribute  through  the  Minister  20  shillings  Scots  for  every 
100  communicants.  Sometimes  a  Minister  came  empty  handed  and 
gave  as  his  excuse  that  the  people  did  totally  desert  the  ordinances 
and  did  not  convene  at  the  place  of  public  worship  upon  the  Lord's  day 
[August  18,  1669]. 

The  Curates  had  to  keep  a  sharp  look-out  on  the  movements  of  the 
outed  Ministers,  and  indeed  on  all  Presbyterian  clergymen  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood ;  they  had  to  report  if  they  knew  of  any  chaplain  officiating  in  a 
private  family.  In  pursuance  of  this  order  Pierson  summoned  Mr. 
William  Listone,  unlicensed  chaplain  of  Johnstone,  to  the  Presbytery 
[October,  1665],  but  he  did  not  compear.  Seven  days  later  he  reported 
that  the  chaplain  had  removed  to  Ireland.     After  the  Battle  of  PuUion 


THE  CURATES  IN   KILBAECHAX.  lor 

Green  [1666]  the  clergy  "  are  enjoined  to  search  out  within  their  several 
parishes  those  engaged  in  the  late  rebellious  insurrection  and  to  give  in 
their  names." 

When  the  Presbytery  visit  Kilbarchan,  15th  October,  1G68,  it  is  put 
on  record  that  the  Minister  has  a  complete  session  and  that  his  elders 
encourage  him  in  the  work  of  the  ministry ;  he  is  found  to  be  diligent 
in  visiting  and  examining  the  people,  and  the  elders  bear  testimony  to  the 
excellence  of  his  doctrine,  life  and  conversation.  The  manse  is  now  found 
to  be  sufficient  though  there  are  yet  only  5  acres  of  glebe  land.  James 
Stirling  on  the  other  hand  says  : — "  That  ten  years  that  the  hireling 
curat  was  among  them,  there  was  a  sad  and  woefull  sett  of  profanity  and 
loosness  put  upon  them;  so  that  they  wer  then  cursing  and  swearing  who 
had  been  a  sort  of  sober  and  morall  people  before."  i  If  we  accept  it  as  a 
fact  that  a  change  for  the  worse  in  the  morals  and  manners  of  the  Kil- 
barchan people  had  taken  place  between  1662  and  1672,  we  cannot  in 
fairness  blame  Mr.  Pierson  ;  in  the  light  of  the  Presbytery's  report  we 
must  ascribe  it  rather  to  the  unsettling  tendency  of  the  ecclesiastical 
changes  which  were  taking  place  ;  and  we  must  remember  that  in  the 
early  part  of  his  ministry  John  Stirling  was  much  more  highly  re- 
spected than  he  was  after  he  came  back  as  an  indulged  Minister  in 
1672  with,  so  to  speak,  a  blemished  character.  It  is  therefore  likely 
that  the  change  in  his  parishioners  which  struck  Stirling  so  foi'cibly,  may 
have  been  to  a  great  extent  merely  a  change  in  their  attitude  towards 
him. 

In  March,  1670,  Mr.  Pierson  left  Kilbarchan  for  Kirkcaldy.  For 
rather  more  than  two  years  there  was  in  Kilbarchan  no  settled  Minister, 
and  so  two  misdemeanants  of  the  period  had  to  wear  their  sackcloth, 
make  a  public  show  of  repentance,  and  undergo  ministerial  rebuke  at 
Lochwinnoch  Church  [January  17,  1672]. 

In  1672  John  Stirling,  the  outed  Minister,  returned  to  his  parish, 
having  accepted  the  Indulgence.     He  died,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1683. 


//. — Archibald  Wilson  or  Gled,  1683—88. 

John  Stirling  had  not  been  six  weeks  in  his  grave  when  an  edict  of 
the  Archbishop  was  served  in  the  church  in  favour  of  Mr.  Archibald 
Wilson  to  be  minister  of  Kilbarchan  [2nd   September,   1683].     On  the 

'  Wodrow's  Anahcta. 


102  KILBAKCHAN. 

11th  October  Mr.  Wilson  received  institution.  Episcopal  "institution" 
corresponds  to  Presbyterian  "  induction."  Very  little  can  be  discovered 
about  Wilson.  One  of  the  same  name  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Paisley  (Episcopal)  as  far  back  as  October,  1G65.  If  this  was  the 
future  curate  of  Kilbarchan,  and  if  we  assume  that  on  the  occasion  of  his 
license  he  was  twenty  years  old,  he  would  now  be  thirty-eight.  That  he 
had  been  all  these  years  out  of  employment  is  very  unlikely,  because 
often  there  had  been  a  great  dearth  of  cui'ates,  but  where  he  had  been 
there  is  not  the  merest  hint.  His  wife  was  Annabella  Hamilton,  jDossibly 
a  daughter  or  grand-daughter  of  Mr.  Andro  Hamilton,  Minister  of  Kil- 
barchan [1605-46]. 

About  the  time  of  Wilson's  institution  or  shortly  thereafter.  Episco- 
pacy seems  to  have  had  new  life  infused  into  it.  On  March  5,  1684, 
Paisley  Presbytery,  which  for  eight  years  had  been  holding  its  meetings 
at  Penfrew  or  at  Greenock,  where  popular  feeling  was  not  so  strong 
against  the  curates,  met  at  Paisley  ;  yet  there  was  so  great  a  disturbance 
on  this  occasion  that  Wilson,  whose  duty  it  was,  could  not  conduct  the 
exercise,  i.e.,  the  opening  religious  services. 

At  Kilbarchan,  there  was  the  old  difficulty  about  getting  a  session, 
and  at  the  meeting  in  March,  1684,  Wilson  is  enjoined  to  do  further 
diligence  in  the  matter.  A  month  later  [April  9,  1684]  the  Minister  repoi'ts 
that  he  is  "  doing  diligence  to  have  a  session  established  ;  that  he  is 
fitting  the  people  for  communion  by  examination  ;  that  he  has  prayed 
for  His  Majesty  and  Royal  Consort,  for  His  Royal  Highness  [Duke  of 
York],  and  the  Royal  Family,  for  the  Archbishop  and  other  clergy  ;  that 
he  has  observed  the  Act  of  Uniformity  in  singing  the  doxology,  saying 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  requiring  the  fteZiV/ [creed]  of  parents  at  the  baptism 
of  their  children,  and  that  he  had  the  services  publickly  in  his  church." 
Year  after  year  the  curates  were  publicly  asked  whether  they  had 
observed  all  these  formalities,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  proof  that  for  the 
sake  of  peace  and  quietness  they  would  have  been  very  glad  to  have 
omitted  them  if  they  could  have  done  so  without  incurring  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Archbishop  and  Privy  Council.  Wilson  brought  with 
him  a  contribution  from  Kilbarchan  for  the  Bridge  of  Dumbrittain  [Dum- 
barton] so  that  he  was  not  entirely  without  a  congregation.  This  bridge 
and  the  bridges  at  Inverness  and  Campsie,  the  harbour  at  Aberdeen,  and 
the  Old  College  at  St.  Andrews,  were  the  objects  at  this  time  for  which 
the  charitable  were  being  asked  to  subscribe.     According  to  the  minister's 


THE   CURATES  IN   KILBARCHAN.  103 

own  profession  the  commnuion  at   Killjarchan  was  being-  elaborately  pre- 
pared for  ;  the  people  are  still  being  prepared  in  September  : — 

3rd  September,  1684. — Mr.  Wilson  reports  that  he  is  preparing  his  people  by  visiting 
and  catechising  in  order  to  the  communion — that  great  duty  of  his  Holy  calling. 

Wilson  attended  the  meetino-s  of  his  Presbytery  with  exemplary 
regularity — of  thirty-one  meetings  held  between  September,  1684,  and 
Se23teml)er,  1G87.  he  was  absent  from  four  only — and  it  seems  curious  that 
during  all  that  time  he  does  not  find  it  necessary  to  report  a  single  case 
of  breach  of  discipline  from  Kilbarchan.  Had  the  parish  become  reformed, 
or  was  the  minister  careless  and  indifferent  ? 

In  1685  the  minister  had  to  answer  for  his  own  conduct  and  his 
wife's  befoi'e  the  Sheriff  at  Paisley,  at  the  instance  of  Janet,  daughter  of 
James  Gib,  at  the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan.  The  girl  had  been  a  servant  in  the 
manse  and  averred  that  she  had  been  compelled  to  leave  just  before  the 
expiry  of  her  six  months  of  service  by  the  threats  of  her  master  and 
mistress,  who  in  their  quarrel  with  her  used  expressions  "  not  worthy  to 
be  heard  among  Christians."  She  condescended,  however,  on  specimens  of 
the  language  used,  the  least  objectionable  we  understand,  and  certainly  it 
was  language  well  calculated  to  make  female  servants  leave  between 
terms.     The  girl  sues  the  minister  and  his  wife  for, 

(1)  8  marks  Scots  and  a  pair  of  shoon  (value  20s.),  as  much  plyding  as  would  be  ane 

pair  hose  (value  9s.),  ane  apron  of  Droggatt  (value  8s.),  ane  peck  of  meal  (value 
8s.),  as  half  a  year's  fee  and  bounties  ; 

(2)  her  proportion  of  three  half  dollars  left  as  gratuities  for  the  servants  by  the  Earl 

of  Gloneairn,  Lord  Ros,  and  Sir  John  Shaw  of  Greenock,  when  they  stayed  all 
night  at  the  manse  at  Candlemas,  1GS5  [which,  it  would  appear,  had  never  reached 
those  for  whom  it  was  intended,  having  been  intercepted  and  appropriated  by 
Mrs.  Anna  for  her  own  use] ;  and 

(3)  for  two  shillings  and  sixpence  borrowed  from  her  in  small  sums  from  time   to  time 

by  her  mistress  and  never  repaid. 

The    whole    case    with    sapient    reflections    thereon    may    be    found    in 
Hector's  Judicial  Records,  Second  Series,  pp.   138-141. 

King  Charles  died  on  the  6th  February,  1G85,  and  his  brother  King- 
James  VII.  and  II.  succeeded.  The  Scottish  Parliament  met  in  April, 
re-enacted  the  Test  against  popery  and  all  other  forms  o{ fanaticism,  and 
passed  a  further  I'epressive  Act  against  conventicles,  penalising  those  who 
attended  such  meetings  to  punishment  by  death  and  confiscation  of  goods. 
But  in  1687  James  by  a  series  of  Acts  of  Toleration,  the  purpose  of  which 


104  KILBAKCHAN. 

was  to  grant  relief  to  his  Roman  Catholic  subjects  only,  involuntarily 
granted  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  his  subjects.  Presbyterians  could  now 
meet  and  worship  after  their  own  way  either  in  private  houses  or  chapels, 
provided  that  disloyal  doctrines  were  not  preached  and  that  the  assem- 
blies were  not  held  in  the  open  air.  The  Presbyterians  of  Kilbarchan 
speedily  took  advantage  of  this  Act  of  Toleration.  The  heritors  under 
the  presidency  of  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  met  early  in  1688, 
and  resolved  to  build  for  themselves  a  meeting-house,  "  five  bays  in 
length  with  three  bays  of  ane  ell  tofall."  The  curate  of  course  still  occu- 
pied the  Parish  Chui'ch. 

William  of  Orange's  fleet  anchored  in  Torbay  on  the  5th  November, 
1688,  and  James  VII.  embarked  for  France  as  a  fugitive  on  the  23rd 
December.  The  Presbyterians  knew  that  their  time  of  oppression  was 
past,  that  their  day  of  triumph  was  come.  On  the  25th  December  began 
those  wild  scenes  known  as  "rabbling  the  curates."  If  Wilson  waited 
in  Kilbarchan  long  enough  to  be  rabbled,  he  would  very  likely  be  dealt 
with  as  the  Episcopalian  ministers  in  other  parts  of  the  country  were  ; 
the  populace  would  come  to  his  house,  seize  and  carry  him  about  in  mock 
procession,  tumble  his  furniture  out  of  doors  and  make  a  bonfire  of  it,  tear 
his  Geneva  gown  over  his  head,  and  conveying  him  to  the  outskirts  of  his 
parish  bid  him  begone  and  never  show  his  face  within  it  any  more. 

Little  is  known  of  Wilson's  subsequent  history.  Two  years  after 
leaving  Kilbarchan  he  was  in  prison  on  a  charge  of  officiating  at  clandes- 
tine marriages,  and  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Presbytery  of  Glasgow  praying 
to  be  released.  On  being  brought  before  that  reverend  court  he  professed 
his  submission  and  urged  the  great  extremity  of  his  circumstances  in 
extenuation  of  his  fault.  The  brethren,  moved  with  pity  for  him,  made  a 
collection  amongst  themselves  and  gave  him  enough  to  relieve  his  most 
pressing  and  immediate  wants.' 

^Reamh  of  aias<jow  Prednjfenj,  February  2,  1C91. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

A    KiLBARCHAN   GENTLEMAN  OF   THE    SEVENTEENTH    CeNTURY — WiLLIAM 

CUNINGHAME,  YoUNGER,  OF    CrAIGENDS. 

With  hym  ther  was  his  sone,  a  yong  Squiee, 

Curteis  he  was,  lowely  and  servysable 
And  carf  biforn  his  fader  at  the  table. 

— Chaucer. 

Church  and  State  difficulties  of  the  time — Domestic  arrangements — The  value  of  reticence — 
The  heir's  provision — Boarding  with  a  mother  and  with  a  mother-in-law — Cost  of  living  in 
Edinburgh — Gentleman's  gentlemen — Lady's  ladies — Farm  rents — A  moonlight  flitting — 
Horse-couping — The  loupin-on-stane  at  Robert  King's  house-end — Ne'ear  days  in  1674-5 — 
How  to  treat  a  stepson — Lucky  schoolboys — Needy  relatives — Our  minister's  son — A  Kil- 
barchan  poet  in  extremity — The  Kirk  plate — Outed  ministers — Parish  poor — Beggars  with 
a  testimonial — Beggars  at  the  gate — Beggars  at  the  Kirk  door — Drink-money — A  Presby- 
terian's relaxations — Prognostications — The  study  at  Craigends  and  its  books — Quartering  the 
Highland  Host — A  landlord's  cares  and  responsibilities — Funeral  garments,  church  stools, 
servants'  guilds,  shottles — Departing  footsteps. 

The  book  known  as  Cuninghame's  Diary,  edited  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Dodds  of  Corstorphine,  and  published  by  the  Scottish  History  Society 
in  1887,  is  interesting  to  a  large  circle  of  readers  because  of  the  curious 
and  exact  information  it  contains  regarding  seventeenth  century  manners 
and  customs,  and  is  especially  interesting  to  Kilbarchan  people  because 
its  author  was  a  local  landlord,  and  because  it  deals  largely  with  local 
affairs. 

It  consists  of  three  sections  :— 

(1)  About  80  entries  of  a  general  character  made  at  intervals  between  the  years,  1674 

and  1715. 

(2)  The  Diarist's  daily  outlay  with  a  balance  sheet  for  each  year  from  1674  until 

1680  ;  and 

(3)  An  inventory  and  valuation  of  the  Craigends  Estate  in    1690,    when   William 

succeeded  his  father,  the  7th  laird. 

William  Cuninghame  had  no  Intention  of  posing  as  an  author  and  of 
writing  to  instruct  or  amuse  posterity,  still  less  to  enlighten  his  contem- 

O  105 


10r>  KTLBARCHAN. 

poraries.  His  sole  object  was  to  keep  a  record  of  the  various  transactions 
in  which  he  engaged  as  a  landlord  and  a  county  gentleman,  and  especially 
of  the  expenses  he  incurred  in  liis  very  frequent  journeyings  to  Edin- 
burgh and  to  Freeland,  in  the  parish  of  Forgandenny,  Perthshire,  where 
Lady  Kuthven,  his  mother-in-law,  lived.  These  journeys  he  had  to 
undertake  in  connection  with  the  business  affairs  of  his  wife  and  his 
step-son. 

The  time  at  wliich  Cuninghame  wrote,  however,  was  politically  and 
ecclesiastically  exciting  and  interesting  ;  his  social  position  and  poHtical 
leanings  must  have  brought  him  into  contact  with  some  of  the  most  impor- 
tant actors  that  then  thronged  the  political  stage,  and  he  was  one  whi> 
was  well  able  to  form  and  to  state  clearly  his  convictions  and  opinions  re- 
garding the  influences  then  at  work,  moulding  and  controlling  the  nation's 
history.  We  liave  to  confess  to  a  little  disappointment  that  he  makes  na 
mention  of  Lauderdale  or  the  Duke  of  York,  of  Archbishop  Sharp  or 
Balfour  of  Burley ;  that  he  takes  no  notice  of  the  skirmishes  at  Drumclog,  at 
Bothwell  Brig,  or  at  Aix-d's  Moss  ;  and  that  his  references  to  the  Highland' 
Host  and  the  persecution  of  the  Presbyterians  are  so  indefinite  and  sa 
scanty.  This  reticence  is  not  a  mere  accident— it  is  deliberate,  inten- 
tional. Cuninghauie  ;is  a  landed  proprietor  had  a  good  deal  at  stake. 
He  was  a  Presbyterian,  though  a  moderate  and  law-abiding  one.  He 
knew  that  in  certain  quarters  he  had  come  to  be  suspected,  and  his 
property  looked  upon  as  a  possible  prey;  naturally  then  he  was  scrupulously 
careful  not  to  commit  to  writing — even  on  the  pages  of  his  private  note- 
book— anything  on  which  the  agents  of  the  Government  could  seize  and 
which  they  might  use  against  him  to  his  own  and  his  family's  overtiirow. 
The  diary  therefore  reveals  to  us  William  Cuninghame  only  in  the  capacity 
of  a  private  gentleman,  though,  when  once  we  have  learned  from  other 
sources  that  he  was  a  Presbyterian  who  actutdly  sufiered  imprisonment 
for  his  religious  convictions,  we  are  able  to  trace  in  his  notebook  indica- 
tions of  his  sympathies  which  otherwise  might  have  escaped  our  notice. 

The  domestic  arrangements  at  Craigends  from  lfi73  onwards  were 
not  exactly  those  amidst  which  the  male  relatives  of  twentieth  century 
ladies  would  expect  to  enjoy  unalloyed  felicity.  Under  the  same  roof 
there  dwelt  for  some  time  a  mother  and  her  daughter-in-law,  the  latter 
moreover  a  lady  of  considerable  matrimonial  experience.  Although 
the  diary  gives  no  indication  of  any  unpleasantness  between  the 
ladies,  it  would  be  too  much  to  assume  that  there  was  none.  The 
author  perhaps    found  that  there  were  subjects  besides  church  politico 


A  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.       107 

on  which  it  was  best  not  to  express  his  mind  too  fi-eely.  The  arrange- 
ments were  simply  these  : — Alexander  Cuninghame,  the  seventh  laird, 
in  view  of  his  son's  marriage  to  Anne,  daughter  of  Lord  Ruthven,  and 
widow  of  Sir  William  Cunningham  of  Cunninghamhead,  executed  a 
deed  by  which  he,  the  laird,  retained  for  himself  simply  the  life-rent 
of  the  greater  part  of  his  estate  ;  the  smaller  part  he  gave  to  his  son  at 
once,  and  for  the  part  he  retained  in  life-rent  he  became  bound  to  pay 
an  annuity  of  three  hundred  merks  for  the  additional  support  of  his  son 
and  of  his  son's  famil}^  The  original  document  drawn  up  in  1673  is  pro- 
bably still  in  existence.  Soon  after  his  marriage,  William  Cuninghame 
having  made  arrangements  for  the  board  and  education  of  his  step-son, 
Sir  William  Cunningham,  elsewhere,  brought  his  wife  without  encumbrance 
to  Craigends,  w^here  they  boarded  with  the  laird  and  lady. 

William  Cuninghame  paid  his  mother  partly  in  money,  partly  in 
kind,  for  his  own  and  his  wife's  board  : — 

Aug.  1,  1674. — I  compleited  the  first  year's  boarding  to  the  Lady  betwixt  Whitsunday 
1673,  and  Whits.  1674.  Having  befor  given  her  200  mks.,  with  50  bolls  meall,  and  Bear, 
I  then  gave  her  156.06.8  of  real!  money.  With  13  lbs.,  for  which  she  took  Ja.  Moody 
debtor,  who  owed  me  so  much  for  meall.  And  the  compt.  of  all  my  foulls  which  she  got, 
amounting  to  14.13.4,  compting  capons  at  ha:  mks.,  Hens  at  grots,  and  Cocks  at  40d., 
and  excepting  8  hens  and  2  cocks  of  Andrew  Laird's,  and  2  hens  and  a  cock  of  Malcolm 
Patieson's,  which  were  not  brought  in,  and  counting  the  12  stane  of  cheese  payed  by  the 
Achans  at  16  lb.  All  together  make  up  300  mks.  given  her  that  day  in  compt.  and  in 
money,  which,  with  the  former  200  M.,  makes  500  M.,  and  the  50  bolls  victual  which  is 
accepted  for  the  sd.  year's  boarding  of  myself  and  my  wife,  her  gentlewoman,  and  servant 
lasse,  and  my  man.  Our  two  horse  grasse  and  fodder  is  also  compted,  and  payed  for  by  it. 
But  not  their  corn,  for  which  I  have  my  father  to  pay  besides. 

Jany.  5,  1676. — I  closed  with  my  mother  about  the  half-year's  boarding  from  Whits 
till  Mart=  1675.  1  gave  her  256  Mks  in  money,  and  counted  the  Achans  12  stane  of  cheese 
{which  she  got)  at  24  mks.,  Inde  250  Mks.  This,  with  19  bowls  of  my  meal  and  6  bowls 
of  my  bear,  payed  the  sd.  half-year's  boarding,  according  to  the  old  rate, 

During  the  next  three  of  four  years,  1676-80,  the  diarist  wa.s  very 
little  at  Craigends,  spending  most  of  his  time  at  Freeland  and  in  Edin- 
burgh ;  hence  the  following  entry  : — 

Oct.,  1679. — Upon  reckoning  made  up  by  myself  how  much  1  have  been  at  home  since 
my  first  going  to  reside  in  Edinburgh  at  Hallowday  1675,  and  what  I  have  payed  my  mother 
for  my  diet  these  times,  I  find  1  was  ten  days  at  home  that  Yuill,  as  also  about  eight  weeks 
in  the  Spring  vaicance  1676,  for  which  I  offered  her  money,  but  she  would  not  take  it,  say- 
ing she  would  be  als  chargeable  to  me  another  way,  so  I  payed  nothing  these  two  times, 
but  only  my  fowlls  1675,  she  getting  the  worth  of  13.07.4.,  and  I  keeped  my  sister  Eebecca 
the  haill  next  winter  session  in  Edinburgh,  which  was  all  I  payed  for  myself  and  my  man 
these  two  times. 


108  KILBARCHAN. 

Then  follows  a  statement  of  other  occasions  on  which  he  visited 
Craigends,  and  of  payments  he  made  for  lodging  and  board,  and  the  entry 
thus  concludes  : — 

.  .  .  . — And  for  times  I  have  been  at  home  since,  I  have  dewly  payed  at  20  lb.  a 
month  for  myself  and  man,  and  als  much  for  my  wife  and  her  woman. 

When  the  Cuningliames  visited  Lady  Ruthven  at  Freeland,  they 
there  also  contributed  so  miich  to  the  common  table  : — 

1677,  May  23. — To  my  wife  for  her  own  use  the  time  I  then  stayed 

in  Freeland,  ...  ...  ...  ...  £23     0     0 

To  her  that  she  paid  for  boarding  us,         ...  ...  42   16     8 

Oct.  23. — Payd  in  smalls  by  my  wife  to  my  Lady  Ruthven  in 

further  payment  of  boarding,  ...  ...  53     7     S 

The  cost  of  living  in  Edinburgh  we  gather  from  the  following  : — 

1677,  Mar.     7.— Payd  as  47  nights' chamber  mail],  ...  ...  24     7     0 

„       8. — Spent  on  house  compt,   viz.,  meat,  drink,   coal  and 
candle,  since  my  last  coming  to  town,  Jan.  12,  till 
my  going  out  of  it,  March  8,  1677,     ... 
Sept.  20. — For  about  5  weeks  chamber  maill, 

For  my  ordinary  diet  all  the  time  I  was  in  Edin. 
that  summer. 

The  diary  supplies  us  with  information  regarding  the  wages  and 
perquisites  of  gentlemen's  seivaiits  and  the  duties  expected  of  them  : — 

1674,  May  20. — Having  before  been  in  terms  with  Wm.  Cuningham,  Tailour,  anent 
fixing  him  to  be  my  man,  wheranent  also  I  had  made  a  condition  at  8  lb.  in  the  half-year. 
But  then  I  altered  it,  and,  mostly  of  my  own  good  will,  hightened  it  to  10  lb.  a  half-year, 
giving  him  presently  a  suit  of  old  cloaths,  and  old  boots,  and  hat,  promising  also  always  to 
hold  him  in  cloaths  beside  his  fie  ;  for  which  he  is  to  serve  me  as  my  man,  to  work  my 
Tailour  work,  and  my  wife's,  and  her  son's  and  gentlewoman's;  and  is  to  work  my  mother's 
Tailour  work  upon  what  terms  she  pleases.  I  had  promised  him  also  a  pair  shoos  in  the 
half-year  ;  And  when  I  told  him  of  keeping  my  ston'd  horse  at  grasse  in  summer,  I  engaged 
to  hold  him  in  shoos.  I  told  him  also  that  he  might  take  in  other  folk's  work  to  the  house, 
providing  he  work  it  without  jjrejudice  of  my  work  and  service,  and  my  mother's.  So  I 
gave  him  a  merk,  beside  half  a  merk  I  had  given  him  before. 

1676,  March  25. — Having  before  given  my  man  Wm.  Cuningham,  his  leave,  I  have 
agreed  with  one  James  Mortoun,  at  present  in  Mr.  James  Hucheson's  service,  to  enter  my 
man  at  Whitsunday  next  for  10  pounds  of  fie  in  the  half  year,  and  half-a-crown  for  shoos  ; 
also  I  must  give  him  a  suit  of  livery  at  entry,  being  to  hold  him  in  cloaths,  either  livery  or 
my  own  castings.  I  gave  him  a  Merk  of  arles  to  help  him  to  a  new  hat,  and  resolve  to  give 
him  ane  old  one  too. 


57 

7 

2 

10 

14 

0 

54 

IS 

0 

A  GENTLEMAN   OF   THE  SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY.  109 

1679,  March. — My  boy  Andrew  Gray  having  run  away,  I  agreed  with  one,  Thomas 
Clerk,  a  tailour,  to  serve  me  for  a  man.  The  condition  was  10  pounds  of  fie  till  Martimas, 
being  then  8  months  to  it  (for  he  was  presently  to  enter).  Ane  suit  of  old  cloaths  of  my 
casting  to  serve  him  for  wear  for  a  whole  year  if  he  should  stay  ;  and  2  or  3  pair  of 
shoe's  als  I  should  cast  them.  So  Thomas  Clerk  entered,  but  would  not  come  West,  tho' 
it  was  his  condition  to  come  on  his  foot  (wee  travelling  in  coach).  As  also  I  gave  him  24s. 
to  bear  his  charges,  besides  9s.  I  gave  him  at  feeing,  and  ane  pair  of  old  shoo's.  But  he 
deceived  me,  and  came  not  West,  and  when  I  wrote  for  him  David  Lamsdaill  sent  me 
George  Marshall  in  his  place,  who  would  serve  me  upon  that  same  condition,  getting  only 
24s.  for  his  charges  West,  which  I  payed  him  out  of  3  lb.  my  wife  was  owing  me. 

There  i.s  no  such  detailed  infoniiation  in  tlie  case  of  the  female 
servants  : — 

1674,  Nov.  11. — To  my  wife,  being  to  pay  Katherin  Brown  her  fies,...  £67     G     8 

1675,  Oct.  30. — To  my  wife,  being  to  pay  34  lb.  for  her  2  women's 

fies  for  a  yier  since  Mart:  1674,  ...  ...  40     0     0 

1676,  Nov.  22. — To  my  wife  to  give  her  woman  Agnes  Hume  for  the 

preceding  half  year's  fie  from  Whits  :  till  Mart : 

1676,      ...  ...  ...  ...  12     0     0 

1677,  Nov.  30. — To  my  wife,  to  pay  her  woman  Jean  Telfer's  half 

year  fie,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  10     4     0 

Farm  rents  were  then  payable  partly  in  money,  partly  in  kind  : — 

1676,  Mar.  14. — I  agreed  with  one  William  Caldwell  about  John  Caldwell's  mailling 
in  Loclierside,  the  sd  John  having  nothing  wherewithall  to  bruik  it  [i.e.,  to  enjoy,  to  possess, 
to  profit  by  it].  I  sett  it  to  the  sd  William  at  the  same  rent,  to  witt,  20  lb.  of  silver,  3 
bowls  ferme  meill,  3  days  horse  service,  and  3  fowlls,  and  10  shillings  of  vicarage  half 
cesse.  But  on  condition  of  3  more  fowls  I  promised  him  two  yoaking  of  land  tilling  this 
year  ;  so  he  is  to  pay  yearly  three  young  fowls,  as  he  called  them,  payable  at  Lammas, 
beside  the  above  three  young  fowlls  payable  at  the  ordinar  time  of  the  year,  and  all  the 
rest  of  the  rent.  And  if  he  stay  but  a  year  or  two  that  the  additional  fowls  make  me  not 
up  for  my  two  yoakings  of  land,  then  I  am  to  have  four  lb.  for  them  at  his  dejmrture. 

Tenants  sometimes  did  not  pay  their  i-ents  : — 

1674,  Dec.  26. — John  Carswell,  one  of  my  tennents  in  Locherside,  stole  secretly  away 
with  his  family,  and  anything  he  had,  leaving  his  haill  rent  lG71r  unpayd,  and  nothing  to 
pay  it  with  but  a  little  rotten  spilt  corn  in  his  yeard,  which,  when  it  was  threshin,  came 
scarce  to  3  firlots,  and  some  peats,  and  of  which  (beside  the  corn)  I  made  only  56s  scots. 
He  left  also  2  doors  upon  the  house  of  his  own  on-putting.  So  upon  the  5th  of  January, 
1675,  I  sett  his  mailling  to  John  Shaw,  son  to  James  in  our  own  Mains.  The  rent  he  con- 
ditioned to  pay  is  40  mks.  and  4  hens,  10s.  of  vicarage  teinds,  and  the  half  of  the  cesse, 
qranent  [where  anent]  we  both  subscribed  a  paper  by  way  of  contract,  building  us  both  for 
nine  years. 

The  u.sual  mode  of  travelling  in  those  days  was  of  course  on  horse- 
back, and  Cuniughame  having  frequent  occasion  to  go  to  Freeland  and  to 


110  KILBAKCHAN. 

Edinburgh,  had  to  provide  himself  with  horses.  We  give  an  instance  of 
the  trocking  transactions  common  at  the  time,  which  must  have  been  much 
more  exciting  and  interesting  than  clean  purchase,  and  must  have  given  a 
huge  advantage  to  dealers  gifted  with  quick  perception  and  with  the 
ability  of  making  rapid  calculations  : — 

1675,  March  18. — I  made  bargain  with  James  Hamiltoun,  Barr's  son,  about  horses  as 
follows  :  I  having  in  August  last  sold  him  my  little  ston'd  naigg  for  100  lb.,  which  he  was 
yet  owing  me,  and  had  but  3  days  before  given  me  his  band  for,  bearing  a  rent  from  Marti- 
mas  last.  On  the  said  18  of  March  I  bought  a  large  brown  gelding  from  him,  for  which  I 
conditioned  to  give  him  my  wife's  old  white  horse  and  13  lb.  sterling  in  buit  [sc.  to  boot], 
the  sd  100  lb.  Scots  band,  with  3  lb.  as  half  a  year's  rent  of  it,  being  allowed  in  the  first 
end  of  it.  So  1  exchanged  horses  with  him  that  same  night,  and  the  morrow  after  payed 
him  53  lb.  Scots,  which  is  the  overplus  of  13  lb.  sterling,  after  the  103  lb.  Scots  is  taken  off 
it.  Also  I  gave  him  up  his  100  lb.  band  the  same  day  ;  And  exchanged  bridles  with  him, 
giving  10  grots  to  buit. 

All  esquires  were  not  so  agile  and  dexterous  as  young  Lochinvar,  of 
whom  it  is  recorded, — 

'■  So  light  to  the  croup  the  fair  lady  he  swung. 
So  light  to  the  saddle  before  her  he  sprung," 

hence  the  necessity  of  a  loupin-o7i-stane. 

1675,  May  6. — I  agreed  with  James  King,  Maissoun  in  Kilbarchan,  that  he  should 
build  me  a  Leaping-on-stone  at  the  said  towne  at  Ro'  King's  house  end,  himself  furnishing 
all  the  material  and  service  (except  one  day's  horse  service  for  leading,  which  I  was  to 
send).  And  I  should  pay  him  5  mks.  for  all.  Also  I  gave  him  a  6  pence  at  the  bargaine 
making,  beside  the  said  5  merks. 

The  amount  of  money  given  away  in  charity  and  as  gratuities  by 
Cuninghame  was  considerable  ;  and  though  his  contributions  are  more  re- 
markable for  their  frequency  than  their  liberality,  they  bear  evidence  to 
his  kindly  nature  and  sympathetic  heart.  His  sisters  and  the  servants 
were  remembered  on  New  Year's  Day  : — 

1674,  Jan.  1. — To  my  sister  Rebecca  for  her  nuir  gift. 
To  my  sister  Jean, 
To  Jonet, 
To  Marion, 
To  Anne, 

To  Katherin  Browne, 
To  Patrik  Cristie, 
To  James  Forgie, 
To  Peter  Patisoun, 


;02 

16 

0 

00 

8 

0 

00 

14 

0 

00 

12 

0 

01 

0 

0 

01 

10 

0 

00 

2 

4 

00 

6 

8 

01 

0 

0 

04  18 

0 

02  00 

0 

01     4 

0 

00  12 

0 

00     3 

4 

£05  10 

0 

00     1 

^ 

00     fi 

0 

01   10 

0 

03     0 

0 

A  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY.       Ill 

Being  in  Edinburgh  at  the  end  of  the  year  1G75,  he  got  his  wife  to 
purchase  New- Year  gifts  for  his  sisters  : — 

1675,  Dec.  23. — For  five  ga' hoods  to  my  5  sisters,  ...  ...  £04     7     6 

For  8  ells  ribbon  to  Rebecca, 

For  a  little  scarf  to  Jean, 

For  a  muff  to  my  sister  Jonet,    ... 

For  a  pr  pendents  to  Marion, 

For  a  necklace  to  Anna, 

To  my  wife,  being  the  overcome  of  the  money  which 

I  gave  to  buy  the  above-m'   things  with,  ...  06  15 

His  step-son,  young  Cunninghamhead,  is  also  regularly  remembered, 

1674,  Ju.     2. — For  a  sword  and  belt  to  Cuninghamheid,    ... 

,,     21. — For  a  orenger  to  Cuninghd, 
Oct.    2. — To  Cuninghamheid  to  send  to  Greenock  to  buy  chas- 
tens   [chestnuts]    with,    ther    was    no    chastens 
gotten,  so  my  wife  got  the  6d., 

1675,  Jan.  1. — To  Cuninghamheid  in  Nuregift,    ... 

1676,  Jan.  1. — To  Cuninghamheid  in  Xeu' gift,   ... 

Two  schoolboys  at  Renfrew  had  the  best  of  reasons  for  looking  for- 
ward to  a  visit  from  their  kind-hearted  kinsman  : — 

1674,  May  21. — To  my  cusings,  Wm.  Cuningham  and  Wi 

Renfrew  School,    ... 
Ju.  30. — To  my  Uncle's  son,  to  his  fairing,  I  bought  the  worth 
of  in  sweeties, 
1676,  Oct.     9. — To  Will :  Shaw,  Bargarren's  son,... 
1678,  May  28.— To  Will:  Shaw,  Bargarren's  son,... 
Sept.  17. — To  Will:  Shaw,  Bargarren's  son,... 
1680,  Sept.  30.— For  Will :  Shaw,  Bargarren's  son,  ...  ...  01     8     0 

This  William  Shaw  was  probably  a  younger  brother  of  John  Shaw  of 
Bargarren,  and  therefore  uncle  to  Christian  Shaw,  the  damsel  who  pre- 
tended she  had  been  bewitched.  William  Cuninghanie,  mentioned 
above,  was  cousin  to  the  diarist  ;  the  family  at  Craigends  paid  for  his 
education, — 

1675,  Mar.  18. — Sometime  this  winter  I  promised  to  my  Uncle  William's  wife  to  bear 
half  and  half  with  the  laird,  my  father,  of  her  son's  boarding  at  the  schooll  for  a  year,  pro- 
viding the  whole  exceeded  not  20  mks.  a  quarter. 

1675,  Nov.  15. — To  Anna  Cuningham,  my  Uncle  William's  daughter, 
which  is  to  be  counted  in  part  of  what  I  pro- 
mised for  her  brother's  boarding,        ...  ...  £03  12     0 


Shaw,  at 

£00   )2 

0 

he  worth 

00     6 

0 

00  12 

0 

00     9 

0 

112  KTLBARCHAN. 

Nor  was  this  tlie  only  relative  whose  necessities  he  relieved  : — 

1675,  Oct.  11. — To  my  granduncle  James,  to  be  sent  to  Ireland,  to 

my  Uncle  John  for  supplie  of  his  necessity,      ...  66  13     4 

1677,  Jii.    19. — To  my  father  to  be  sent  to  Ireland  to   my  Uncle 

John,  being  in  strait,  ...  ...  ...  29     0     0 

James  Stirling,  the  son  of  the  minister  of  Kilbarchan  and  afterwards 
his  father's  successor,  appears  also  to  have  been  a  favourite  : — 

1674,  Aug.  29.— To  Jas:  Stirling,  our  minr's  son,  ...  ...  £00     6     0 

1676,  Jan.    4.— To  James  Stirling  in  Neu' gift,...  ...  ...  00  12     0 

It  was  not  to  schoolboys  only  that  the  laird  came  as  a  special  provi- 
dence. Francis  Sempill  of  Beltrees,  the  impecunious  poet,  tells  us  how, 
when  on  one  occasion  he  was  left  absolutely  destitute  at  Falkirk,  he 
too  had  reason  to  bless  the  name  of  Cuninghame  : — 

But  Cuninghame  soon  me  espy'd  ; 
By  hue  and  hair  he  brought  me  in, 
And  swore  we  should  not  part  so  dry 
Though  I  were  naked  to  the  skin. 

The  reference  may  be  to  the  diarist  who,  passing  through  Falkirk  on  his 
way  to  Freeland  or  to  Edinburgh,  chanced  to  light  on  his  needy  neighbour. 
There  was   public   worship  in  Kilbarchan   Church    not  only  on  the 
Sundays  but  also  on  the  Fridays, — 

1673,  Nov.  21.— To  Kilbarchen  bred,  ...             ...             ...             ...  £00  1  0 

Nov.  23.— To  Kilbarchen  bred,  ...             ...             ...             ...  00  1  0 

Nov.  28.— To  Kilbarchen  bred,  ...             ...             ...             ...  00  1  0 

Nov.  30.— To  Kilb.  bred,              00  1  0 

Sometimes  the  contribution  was  more  than  the  orthodox  shilling  Scots, 
especially  on  Sacramental  occasions  : — 

1675,  Feb.  7.— To  Kilbarchen  Kirk  box. 
May  30. — To  Kilbarchen  box, 
June    3. — To  Kilbar  :  box,  it  being  a  fast,  . . . 
July  1 5. — To  Kilb  :  box,  it  being  our  Communion  fast, 

„     16. — To  Kilb  :  box  on  the  Communion  Saturday, 

„     18. — To  Kilb  :  box  on  the  Communion  day, 

„     19. — To  Kilb  :  box  on  the  Communion  Monday, 

In  reading  the  Day-book  one  is  struck  with  the  great  number  of 
people  who  were  in  straitened  circumstances.  The  religious  persecutions 
of  the  time  occasioned  great  poverty  and  hardship  : — 


£00 

2 

0 

00 

4 

0 

00 

6 

0 

00 

6 

2 

00 

3 

4 

01. 

0 

8 

00 

3 

4 

05 

ir. 

02 

IG 

01 

0 

02 

16 

0-i 

A  GENTLEMAN   OF   THE  SEVENTEENTH   CENTIKY 

1G74,  Mar.  2S. — To  my  wife  to  give  in  charity  to  the  relict  and  child 

of  a  minister  called  Mr.  Ja  Dunbar,  ... 
Dec.  9. — To  M'  W'"  Thomson,  minister  at  Houston  to  send  to 

a  poor  persecuted  min'  called  M'  Ale'  I'adie,  who 

lies  prisoner  very  closse  in  the  Basse,... 
1G75,  Dec.  16 — To  a  poor  distrest  preacher  who  had  a  great  family, 
1G77,  Mar.  17. — To  the  contribution  for  the  prisoners  in  the  Basse,  ... 
,,     21. — I  gave  further  to  the  contribution  for  the  prisoners 

at  the  Basse, 
1G78,  Oct.  22. —To  a  private  contribution  for  a  minister,    ... 

Much  of  Ilia  charity  was  dispensed  to  needy   people  in  the  neiglibot 
hood  with  whose  circumstances  he  was  probably  well  acquainted  : — 

1G74,  Ap.   18. — To  a  poor  woman  in  the  paroch,...  ...  ..  £00     3 

Jn.  26. — To  a  poor  man  called  Jo  Muir,    ...  ...  ...  00     4 

Aug.  2  — To   the    woman    that   keeps    the    poor   daft   lad    iu 

Houstoun  side,       ...  ...  ...  ...  00     4 

Dec.  25. — Given  in  contribution,  with  other  gentlemen  at  Pol- 
lock, for  tho  relieving  of  one  ^latthew  Stuart  out 
of  prison  for  debt,  ...  ...  ...  01      9 

1675,  Ju.    16. — To  a  poor  man   called   Ja  :  Cuningham,   who  had  a 

cancer  in  his  craig, 
Aug.  11. — To  blind  W"'  Jaraieson  in  charitie, 
Dec.  17.— Given  to  help  to  Mr  Jo  :  Maxwell's  burriall, 

1676,  Oct.  30. — To  blind  W'"  Jamieson  in  charity, 

1677,  Aug.  7.^Given    of   contribution    for    a    poor    gentlewoman's 

burriall,... 
1680,  Mar.  22. — To  a  poor  widdow  on  my  own  ground,     ... 

Ap.  15. — Given  to  help  to  ransome  a  captive  Greenock  man 

from  the  Turks,     ...  ...  ...  ...  00  13     4 

Some  carried  with  them  a  testimonial  from  the  Presbytery  certifying 
that  they  were  in  need  of  charitable  relief: — 

1674,  Feb.  17. — To  a  poor  man  that  had  a  Testimonial,      ...  ...  £00     4     0 

Ap.  12. — -To  a  poor  woman  with  a  Testimonial,        ...  ...  00     4     0 

1676,  Jan.  19. — To  a  poor  woman  that  had  a  Testim' :       ...  ...  00  14     0 

And  besides  the.se,  there  were  casual  beggars  coming  to  the  gate,  of  Craig- 
ends,  beggars  meeting  him  at  the  church  door,  lieggar.s  on  the  road,  and 
irs  in  the  street  : — 

1674,  May  19. — To  a  poor  woman  at  the  gate,     ...              ...              ...  £00  0  S 

,,     21. — To  a  poor  woman   to  pay  her  fraught  (at  Renfrew 

Ferry),   ...              ...              ...              ...              ...  00  1  0 

„       „  — To  4  poor  folk  on  the  way  to  Stirling,       ...              ...  00  1  4 

r 


00  12 

0 

00  6 

0 

00  17 

0 

00  13 

4 

00  11 

4 

00  13 

4 

00 

3 

2 

00 

0 

4 

00 

0 

G 

00 

0 

s 

00 

0 

10 

00 

0 

■t 

00 

0 

2 

1 1 4  KILBARCHAN. 

1G74,  May  22. — To  the  beggars  at  Stirling  and  on  the  way  to  Free- 

land, 
„     23. — To  a  poor  man  at  Freeland  gate, 
„     27. — To  a  poor  lad  at  Freeland  gate,  .. . 
„     28. — To  a  poor  woman  at  Maillart,      ... 
,,       ,, —To  a  poor  man  and  poor  woman, 
„     29.. — To  a  poor  woman  at  the  gate,     ... 
„       ,, — To  a  poor  man  at  the  gate, 
June  3. — Given  to  beggar.s  in  Edinburgh  and  on  my  way  to 

Freeland,  ...  ''  ...  ...  ...  00     4  10 

When  Uraigends  went  to  chureh  at  Pai.sley,  as  lie  sotnetimes  did, 
tliere  "was  always  something  to  be  given  to  the  beggars  there  : — 

1674,  July  24.— To  Pasley  box  and  poor  folk  ther,  ...  ...  00     2     0 

Aug  9.— To  Pasley  kirk  box  and  poor  folk,  ...  ...  00     2     0 

„    14.— To  Pasley  box  and  poor  folk,     ...  ...  ...  00     2     0 

Mention  is  frequently  made  of  tips  or  gratuities  given  on  the  occa- 
sion of  making  a  bargain,  and  also  to  the  servants  in  houses  where  he 
stayed  : — 

1675,  ]\Iar.  19. — To  his  (James  Hamilton's)  man  in  drink  money,      ...  £00  14     0 
Ap.    28. — For  a  drink  at  the  delivery  of  money  to  me, 
Dec.    9. — Given  of  drink  money  to  a  shoo  maker,    ... 

,,     18. — To  the  peri  wick  maker's  boy  of  drink  silver, 
1677,  Oct.    2. — Left  of  drink  money  in  Freeland, 

Oct.    3. — Drink  silver  to  servants  (at  Sauchie), 
„    18. — Drink  money  left  in  Pollock, 
„    31. — Left  of  drink  silver  in  Freeland,... 
Nov.    1. — To  Lawry  Dae  to  take  a  drink,   ... 
„      5. — Drink  silver  to  Wm.  Wood's  Jasse, 
,,     12. — Drink  silver  to  the  servant  lasse. 

Though  a  Presbyterian,  Cuniughame  was  by  no  means  a  rigid  jmritan 
in  his  habits.  He  hunted,  hawked,  curled,  j)layed  at  bowls  and  at  tennis, 
he  enjoyed  himself  at  weddings,  he  lost  and  perhaps  sometimes  won 
money  at  billiards  and  at  cards.  When  in  Edinburgh  he  went  to  the 
theatre  and  made  a  point  of  seeing  such  sights  as  rope-dancing,  "the  bears 
and  the  ape,"  and  the  elephant.  At  old-fashioned  houses,  such  as  Lady 
Piuthven's,  there  was  still  the  ^professional  jester  or  fool  whom  the  parting 
guest  had  to  remember  with  a  small  gratuity  : — 

1673,  Dec.  23 —To  Peter  Boy n,  the  fool,  ...  ...  ...  £00     1     0 

1674,  Mav  29.— To  the  fooU  at  Freeland,  ...  ...  ...  00     0  10 


00  1 

2 

00  2 

0 

00  6 

8 

02  16 

0 

00  4 

0 

01  9 

0 

O.i  16 

0 

00  0 

f) 

00  13 

4 

00  6 

0 

00 

12 

00 

3 

04 

8 

01 

13 

U-2 

IG 

11 

12 

07 

9 

02 

0 

02 

IS 

00 

15 

00 

(5 

03 

\6 

00 

1(5 

00 

10 

A  GENTLEMAN  OF  THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY. 

1674,  June  20. — Lost  at  bowling  green, 
„      20.— Payed  of  bowll  Mail],  ... 

„      21. — For  3   of  us,  Cuiiinghd,  my  sister,  and  my  self,  our 
seeing  the  Play,     ... 
Aug.  H. — Lost  at  tennies  with  Kilbirnie,   ... 
Dec.  26. — To  the  violers  at  Pollock  at  Eossyth's  marriage, 
1G75,  Mar.  31. — Spent  at  the  hunting  at  Kilbar,... 
Ap.    2. — To  Barochan's  f^'uarriours,    - 

1676,  Jy.    ]. — Given  to  see  the  Bears  and  the  Ape, 

„    11. — Spent  in  companie  with  the  Master  of  Burley, 

1677,  Mar.  1.5. — Lost  in  cards  now  and  then  in  Edin., 

Jy.    9. — Lost  at  tables, 

,,    23. — Spent  at  night  in  company, 

„     2r). — For  my  dinner  at  my  Ld.  Ross' man's  brydall, 
Aug.  17. — Lost  at  the  Billiards,    ... 
Dec.    5. — For  seeing  the  rope  dancing, 

1678,  Ap.  23. — Spent  at  my  Lady  Napier's  woman's  brydall, 
1680,    Ju.   12.— For  a  sight  of  the  Elephant, 

Dec.     9. — Spent  at  the  ice. 

The  entry  "  i'm-  a  iirognostication,"  which  oceans  sometimes,  may  be 
taken  to  indicate  that  the  diarist  set  some  store  by  the  word  of  the 
soothsayer — yet  if  the  price  paid  be  any  index  of  the  vahie  set  on  tlie 
advice,  it  appears  to  have  been  looked  upon  more  in  way  of  a  joke.  Once 
at  least  Gavin  Moodie  was  the  fortune  teller  :  he  seems  to  have  been  a 
hanger-on  at  Craigends  for  whom  the  Laird,  though  not  a  smoker  himself, 
bought  on  one  occasion  two  oz.  of  tobacco  : — 

1674,  Ap.    8. — To  Gavin  ]Moudie  for  his  prognostication,  ...  £00     0     6 

1675,  Jan.  30. — For  a  prognostication,...  ...  ...  ...  00     0     4 

Mar.  29. — For  2  ounces  tobac:  to  Ga:  Moodie,  ...  ...  00     2     0 

1676,  Jan.  12. — For  a  prognostication,  ..  ...  ...  ...  00     4     6 

1G77,  Jan.  25. — For  a  prognostication,.  ..  ...  ...  ...  ()(i     0     4 

Sept.  21. — For  pears  and  a  new  prognostication,        ...  00     2     6 

William  (Aminghame  fitted  up  in  his  father's  house  at  Craigends,  a 
room  for  his  own  private  use,  which  lie  calls  his  study.  On  it  he  .spent 
considerable  sums  :■ — 


674. — My  expenses  about  my  study, 
675. — My  study  building, 


£26  11 
1675.— My  study  building,  ...  ...  ...  ...  055  00 


The  books  and  copies  of  Acts  of  Parliament  which  he  purchased,  show  hi 
to  have  been  nu  conrant  with  the  controversies  of  his  time  : — 


KILBAKCHAN. 


1675,  Ju.  12.— 


Nov.  20.- 
1676,  June  16.- 
1678,  Feb.  16.- 
„     19.- 
Jy.  27.- 
Aug.  1  O.- 
Nov. 2.- 


.679, 

Mar, 

i. 

■h-- 

10. 

Dec. 

10. 
26. 

.680, 

Feb. 

27. 

June 

17 

For  a  little  book  called  "The  2'  part  of  the  fulfillir 
of  the  Scriptures," 

For  the  Act  of  Kegulation, 

For  binding  a  book  of  written  sermons,     ... 

For  a  book  called  "  Alleins  Life  and  Death," 
— For  ane  Act  of  Counsell, 
—For  a  book  called  Clerk's  Lives,... 
—For  the  Act  of  Con fention  of  Estates, 
—For  a  copy  of  the  news  about  the  plot, 
—For  a  new  proclamation, 
— For  the  proclamation  of  the  Fast, 
— For  a  printed  paper,    ... 

-For  a  little  book  called  the  Apollogy, 
— For  a  book  called  "Allan's  Alarm," 
—For  the  Appendix  Church  History, 
— For  a  book  called  Allan's  Remains, 
—For  a  Confession  of  Faith  and  Catechism, 
—For  Pool's  Nullity  of  the  Roman  Faith,   ... 
— For  a  Funerall  of  the  Masse, 
— Fur  Corbet's  Kinadome  of  God,... 


£01 

0 

0 

00 

3 

0 

01 

1 

0 

01 

8 

0 

00 

1 

8 

11 

u 

0 

00 

12 

0 

00 

2 

0 

00 

1 

0 

00 

1 

0 

00 

1 

0 

00 

13 

4 

01 

9 

0 

00 

9 

0 

01 

6 

0 

01 

5 

0 

01 

8 

0 

00 

8 

0 

00 

4 

0 

Suldiers  of  tlie  Higlihuul  Ho.st  and  of  the  East  County  Yeonianiy 
were  quartered  in  1678  on  some  of  the  Craio-ends  tenantry — hence  the 
followhio-  entries  ; — 


£07  16 

0 

09  13 

4 

08  S 

0 

00  15 

6 

06  0 

2 

1678,  June    3.  — I  allowed  to  Ninian  Parker,  at  his  rent  paying,  as  the 
half  of  the  burden  he  bare  of  the  souldiers, 
I  allowed  to  James  VValkinshaw,  on  the  said  account, 
„       6.  -I  allowed  to  Arch:  Arthur,  on  the  said  account,  the 

souldiers  being  there  28  days, 
„       <i. — I  allowed  to  Peter  Walker,  on  said  account, 
.,      10. — I  allowed  to  Hugh  Cochran,  on  said  account, 
Oct.    5.— I  allowed  to  Janet  Reid,  at  the  compleiting  of  her 
rent,  as  the  half  of  her  burden  for  the  blew  coat 
souldiers,  when  they  were  heir,  ...  ...  09   11     8 

Lawburrovvs,  a  legal  instrument  making  the  landlord  responsible  if 
his  tenants  did  not  conform  to  the  Acts  of  Parliament  anent  conventicle.s, 
etc.,  caused  Cuninghame  some  concern  : 

1678,  Mar.    4 For   a   Consultation   of   lawyers   about    the    public 


-For   a   Consultation   of   lawyers   about 
business  of  Lawburrows, 


£20     2     0 


From  the  fretjuent  mention  of  gratuities  to  the  doorkeepers  or  officers  it 
would  appear  that  during  1077-80  Cuninghame  was  in  pretty  constant 
attendance  on  the  law  courts  in  Edinburgh,  but  whether  his  business  was 


X  GENTLEMAN   OF  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CEXTLRY.  117 

regarding  his  position  ns  ;i  Presbyterian  landlord  or  regarding  the  atiairs 
uf  his  stepson  Cunninglianihead,  we  cannot  ascertain. 

The  (piotations  given  by  no  means  exhaust  the  items  of  interest 
wliich  the  diary  contains.  Jt  sheds  quite  a  Hood  of  light  on  the  details 
and  amenities  of  life  two  centuries  ago.  It  seems  not  a  little  strange  to 
hear  that  the  laird  generally  attended  funerals  dressed  in  a  /tired  cloak  ; 
that  when  he  went  to  hear  Mr.  Alexander  Hauiiltou  at  Uahneny  Church 
he  had  to  hire  a  stool  from  the  church  officer;  that  he  had  to  pay  fees  for 
his  man  servant's  initiation  into  some  sort  of  guild  or  corporation,  the  pre- 
cursor of  that  which  on  one  occasion  entertained  the  immortal  Mr.  Sam 
Weller  on  his  visit  to  Bath  :  and  that  besides  practising  economy  bv 
engaging  a  tailur  as  liis  valet,  he  was  the  owner  of  a  gieat  many  shuttles 
for  which  he  bought  live  dozen  rings  and  eight  ells  of  great  wire. 

The  figure  and  character  of  William  Cnninghame — thanks  to  his 
diary — stand  before  us  with  wonderful  vividness.  It  almost  seems  as  if 
were  only  yesterday  that  we  saw  him  in  the  Parish  Church  and  heard  his 
cheerful  salutation  at  the  kirk  gate  or  in  the  market  place,  and  it  is  hard 
to  believe  that  it  is  more  than  two  centuries  since  the  Laird  and  his  Lady, 
having  given  Mr.  John  Stirling  a  "hearing,"  mounted  "the  brown  lior.se" 
or  "the  little  white  naig"  by  the  helj)  of  the  leaping-on-stone  at  Robert 
King's  house-enil,  and  rode  oft'  on  tlieir  way  to  Craigends. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Poll  Tax  Pioll— 1G95. 

How  changed  is  here  each  spot  man  makes  or  fills  ! 
In  the  two  Hinkseys  nothing  keeps  the  same  ; 

The  village  street  its  haunted  mansion  lacks, 
And  from  the  sign  is  gone  Sibylla's  name. 

And  from  the  roofs  the  twisted  cliininey  stacks — 
Are  ye  too  changed,  ye  hills  ? 

-M.  ArnoUl's  'Jlnirsis. 

Purpose  of  the  Tax— Its  gradation  and  incidence— Roll  for  Kilbarchane  Parochine— Notes  on  tlie 
Hows  of  Daniptonn,  the  Hairs  of  Nethir  Pennell,  the  Craigs  of  Monkland,  and  the  Youngs  «f 
Weitlands— The  Cochrane  Succession  Case— The  Seniples  of  Middleton. 

Though  the  following  list  of  names,  prepared  in  connection  with  the  Poll 
Tax,  may  not  at  first  sight  be  found  j>articularly  inviting,  yet  on  closer 
inspection  it  yields  a  great  deal  of  very  interesting  and  curious  informa- 
tion regarding  the  social  condition  of  the  Parish  at  the  close  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

In  1695  the  Scottish  Parliament,  impres.sed  with  the  necessity  of 
increasing  the  efficiency  of  both  the  Army  and  the  Navy,  and  recognising 
that  the  expenditure  under  this  head  could  not  be  met  by  the  already 
existing  sources  of  revenue,  resolved  to  impose  a  new  tax.  This  wlss  called 
the  Poll  Tax  after  the  first  of  the  main  provisions  of  the  Act,  though  in 
reality  it  went  a  good  deal  further  than  tbe  name  implies.  The  Act  pro- 
vided,— 

(1)  that  all  subjects,  in  capita,  should  pay  6s.  with  the  following 
exceptions  : — [a)  the  very  poor ;  (6)  those  under  sixteen  years  of  age 
living  in  homes  yielding  a  total  assessment  of  le.ss  than  30s.  ;  and  (o) 
servants  engaged  for  the  harvest  merely,  whose  homes  were  not  in  the 
jiarish  ; 

(2)  that  there  should  be  an  ad  valorem  assessment  in  addition  to  the 
poll  money,  according  to  the  following  rates: — (a)  servants,  including 
harvesters,  contributed  7^  of  their  yearly  wage  ;  (h)  tradesmen  6s.  for 
their  trade  ;  {rj  tenant  fanners  Vio   part  of  tlieir  rent  according  to  the 

lis 


THE   POLL   TAX    ROLL.  119 

valuation  of  1643  ;  (J.)  shopkeepers  according  to  the  vahie  of  their  stock, 
e.;/.,  if  between  500  mks.  and  5,000  mks.,  they  were  taxed  £2  10s.  ;  (c) 
heritors  whose  valued  rent  was  between  £20  and  £50,  paid  £1  ;  betw'een 
£50  and  £200,  £4;  between  £208  and  £500,  £9;  over  £500,  £l2  ;  {/} 
widows  ^3  of  what  their  husbands  if  alive  would  have  paid  ;  {</)  notaries 
[)ublic,  £4  ;  (/;)  doctors  of  medicine,  £12  ;  {{)  gentlemen  who  did  not 
come  under  any  of  the  other  heads,  £3,  e.g.,  the  minister  (James  Stirling) 
and  Robert  Semple  of  Dyckhead. 

No  one,  however,  was  taxed  under  more  than  one  head  in  addition 
to  his  poll  tax,  Init  each  was  assessed  under  that  whicli  compelled  him 
to  contribute  most.  Take  for  example  John  Paterson  in  Tandlehill  who 
was  a  farmer  in  a  small  wav  as  well  as  a  weaver.  The  sum  of  his  assess- 
ment was  r2s.,  made  up  of  Gs.  under  the  Poll  Tax  and  6s.  for  his  trade  ; 
but  he  had  not  to  pay  the  2s.  5d.  incident  on  his  rent  of  £12. 

An  examination  of  the  list  shows  that  the  number  of  inhabitants  in 
the  parish  was  less  than  one  thousand — most  of  whom  were  engaged  in 
agriculture;  that  the  number  of  weavers  was  only  about  forty;  that  in 
the  village  of  Kilbarchan  there  were  only  thirty  families,  that  of  the  five 
merchants  only  one  had  stock  in  trade  exceeding  500  mks.,  i.e.,  £2S 
Sterling,  and  that  there  was  but  one  weaver,  Francis  Houston. 

The  manuscript  of  Poll  Tax  PtoUs  for  Renfrewshire  was  discovered  by 
the  late  Mr.  David  Semple,  writer,  Paisley.  In  1864  they  were  published 
in  the  Glasgow  Herald.  The  accounts  are  kept  in  Scots  money.  The  con- 
tractions used  occasion  little  or  no  difficulty. 


K  I  L  B  A  R  I'  H  A  N  E       P  A  R  O  C  H  I  N  E. 

The  Lauds  <>J'  Johnstoune. 

The  Laird  of  Johnstone,  SOOlib'  val.,"  12lib  6sh;  and  his  eldest 
soue,  500lib,  12lib  6sh  ;  his  lady,  6sh  ;  William,  Charles, 
and  James,  each  sone  thrie  lib  6sh  ;  Elez.  and  Christian, 
daurs.,' each  6sh, £35     8     0 

James  Thotnsoune,  servant  to  the  Laird  of  Johnstoune,  20lib 
fie,  10s  ;  Hat.  Patiesoune,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  James  Urie, 
servant,  20lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Robert  Wallace,  servant,  20lib 
fie,  lOsli  ;  John  Mouiitgomrie,  sert.,  16lib  fie,   Bsh  ;  Mary 

'Lib.^ pound.  '^  Val.  =  valuation.  ^  Daur3.=: daughters. 


120  KILBARCHAN. 

Bryce,  servant,  24lib  fie,   12sh  ;  Jean  Crafoord,  servant, 

20mks.'  fie,  Gsh  8d;  Jean  How,  serf.,  20mks.  fie,  6sh  8d  ; 

and  Wni.  NeilrfOLine,  servant,  26lib  fie,  13sli,       £6    18      4 

Jolm  Pettersoune,  in  Tandelehill,  12lb  val.,  weiver,  Gsli  trade, 

6sli  pole;  Jean  Held,  lils  spouse,  (5sh,       ...  ...  ...        0    IS      0 

John  Caldwall,  yr.,"  1  2lib  val.,  no  trade.  Ssli  Gd  ;   Agnas  Aiken, 

his  .spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        014      8 

John    Terbert,   yr.,    r2lib    val,    r2.sh   trade   and   pole;  Agnas 

Lochead,  his  spouse,  Gsh,   ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        018      0 

James  King,  in  Johnstoune  Myllne,  45lib  13sh  2d  val.,  9sli  2d  ; 

Mary  Wallace,  his  mother,  and  Mary,  his  sister,  each  Gsh,        1      7      2 
John  Reid,  in  Watersyde,  38lib  13s  4d,  is  7sh  8d  ;  Jean  Held, 

his  spouse,  and  Margt.  Clerk,  sert.,  12lib  fie,  r2.sh,         ...        1    11      8 
John  Snodgrass,  taylior,  in  Rendyck,  20lib  val.  Gsh  trade,  Gsh 

pole;  Anna  Semple,  his  spouse,  Gs,  ...  ...  ...        0    18     0 

John  (Jordoner,  in  Upper  Walkmyllne,  25lil)  val.   12sli   trade 

and  pole  ;  Jssobell  Speir,  his  spouse,  and  James,  his  sone, 

each  Gsh,      14     0 

Andrew  Cordoner,    yr.,    13lib   val.    3sh    8d  ;  Margaret   King, 

spouse,   ~       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ■■.  ..•        015      8 

John   ]\[erchant,   yr.,    9lib   val.,  weiver,   1: 

Isso.  Robiesoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh,... 
John  Orr,  fewer,  of  Barnaich,  20niks.  val., 
John   Ciirdoner,   in    Nether   Walkmyllne,  14lib   val.,    Wcdkei, 

]2sh;  Jean  Cochrane,  his  spouse,  Gs,        ...  ...  ...        0   18      0 

Fetter   Alexr.,    weiver   in   Mains,    14lii)  val.,   12sh   trade  and 

pole;  Jean  Cordoner,  his  spouse,  Gsh,      ...  ...  ...        0    18      0 

William   Cordoner,  yr.,  walker,   25mks.  val..    TJsh  trade  and 

pole  ;  Elspet  Orr,  his  wife,  Gsh, 018     0 

John  Merschell,  in  Yeardfoot,  22lib  val.,  4sh  Gd  ;  Jean  Lindsay, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ..•        0   16      6 

John  Locheord,  in  Johnstoune,  3G,  13sh  4d  val.,  7sh  4(1  ;  Janet 

Orr,  his  spouse,   Gs  ;  and  Catharine  Pattiesoune,  hervest 

fie,  4lib.  is  2sh,        118 

John  Wilsoune,  in  Haningsyde,  heretor,  above  50lib  and  below 

200lib  val.,   4lib  Gsh  ;   Margt.    Semple,  his  spouse,  and 

Margt.    his   daur.,   each    Gsh  ;  Alexr.   Miller,    hervest   fie 

8lib,  is  4sh, .i'5     2     0 

1  Mks.=  merka.  =  Yr.=  there. 


Ii  trade  aiK 

1  pole  ; 

0    18      0 

ib  Gsh,   ... 

0      G     0 

THE   TOLL   TAX    i;OLL.  121 

John   BaiT,  yr.,    15lib   val.,    3sh  ;  Jean  Wilsoune,  his  spouse, 

Gsli  ;  Margt.  Cochrane,  sert.,  20mks  fie,  Csh  Sd, £1      7      8 

Tliomas  Barr,  in  Clajfaukl,  6Hb  val.,  weiver,  12sh,  trade  and 
pole  ;  Agnas  Barr,  his  spouse,  and  Agnas,  his  daur.,  each 
6sh,  ...  '       14     0 

William  Dick,  in  Hillhead,  workman,  Elizabeth   Houstoune, 

his  spouse,  and  Margt.,  his  sister,  each  6sh,         ...  ...        0    18      0 

James  Semple,   taylior,  yr.,   7niks.  val.,  12sh,  trade  and  pole; 

Catharine  Hendersoune,  his  spouse,   6sh,...  ...  ...        0   18      0 

John  Foster,  in  Mains,  19lib  6sh  8d  val.,  4sh  ;  Isso.  Merchant, 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        OIG     0 

John    Hall,    smith    in    Guliehoiise,    15lib    val.,    12sh  ;   Agnas 

Baird,  his  spouse,  Gsh,         0    18      0 

William  Reid,  in  Pynsdaill,  weiver,  r2sh,  trade  and  pole  ; 
Jean  Banatine,  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Ja.  Whyte  and  Ja.  Adam, 
prentices,  each  Gsh  ;  Marion  Aikine,  servant,  20mks.  fie, 
12sh  8d  ;  Jonnet  Merschell,  good-mother,  Gsii,    ...  ...        2     8      S 

Gavin  Petter.soune,  yr.,  weiver,  12s,  trade  and  pole;  K]s[)eth 

Allasoune,  his  spouse,  and  Agnas,  his  sister,  each  Gsh,  ...        1      4     0 

John  Hender.soune,  taylior  in  Mains,  8lib  val.,  12sli,  trade  and 

pole;  Elsjae  Barbour,  his  spouse,  Gsh,       ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 

James  Pettersoune,   in   Mains,   lUmks.  val.,  2s  8d  ;  Elizabeth 

Cunlnghame,  his  spouse,  Gsh,         ...  ...  ...  ...        0    14      0 

Gilbert     Hunter,     yr.,    20lib    val.,    4s;     Grissell    Snudgra,sse, 

.spouse,  Gsh, OIGO 

William  Merschell,  in  Crokedaiken,  20mks.  val,  2sli  8d  ;  Mar- 
garet Pattisoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...        0    14      8 

Kobert  Pettersoune,  in  Barsbush,  14lib  va!.,  2^\\  lOd;    Jean 

Wodrow,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   14    10 

Arch.  Caldwall,  mert.^  in  Barsyde,  12lib  val.,  not  worth  500 
mks.,  12s;  Jean  >Stewart,  his  spouse,  Gsh;  Anna  King, 
sert.,  20mks.  fie,  Gsh  Sd  ;  Mary  Cuninghame,  servant. 
Glib  fie,  3sh, 1    19     8 

Andrew  Arthonr,  merct.  in  Brigesyde,  JJOlil)  val.,  Gsh;  Jennet 
Arthur,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Ja.,  Andr.,  Jean,  William,  and 
John,  childi'eiue,  each  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Cordoner,  seit.,  lOlib 
fie,  5sh,         5     3     0 

'  Melt. ^iiu-rcliaiit. 


KILBAECHAX. 


My  Lord  Semple's  Lands  and  Fewars.      Third  Pt. 

.Tonnet   King,   in   Murdo-eonliill,    DOlib    val.,    8sli  :    Jean  and 

Catharine  Shaos,  daurs.,  each  Gs,  ...  ...  ...  ...      £1      G      0 

James  Orr,  in  Drygate,  50mks.   val.,  Gsh  8d  ;  Jennet   Stein- 

soune,  his  spouse,  and  Jean,  daur.,  each  Gsh,       ...  ...        1      4     8 

John   OiT,  tayHor  in   Corbarr,   20mks.   val.,    12sh  trade   and 

pole;  Jonnet  Houstoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  U   IS     0 

John  Nivine,  yr.,   20mks.   val.,   2sh  8d  ;   Jonnet  Barbour,  his 

spouse,  and  Jean,  his  daur.,  each  G.sh,       108 

John  Cochrane,  in  Hill,  40mks.  val.,  osh  4d  ;  Agnas  Hous- 
toune, his  spou.se,  Gsh  ;  Margaret  Climie,  .servant,  20niks. 
fie,  Gsh  8d, 1    10     0 

Alexr.  Cochrane,  in  Mains  of  Thirdpart,  40mks.  val.,  5sh  4d  : 
Elspeth  Riddell,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Catharine  Lylle,  8inks. 
in  hervest,  2,sh  8d, 10     0 

Marion   King,    in    Hardgate,    20niks.    val.,   2sh    8d  ;    Andrew 

Clerk,  her  sone,  Gsh  ;   and  Margt.,  daur.,  Gsh,     0   14      8 

James  Orr,  taylior  in  Mains,  Sval.,  Gsh  trade,  Gsh  pole  :  Jennet 

Orr,  his  .spouse,  G.sh,  0   18      0 

Elez.  Erskine,  in  Faulds,  25mks.  val.,  3sh  4d  ;  Catharine 
Lochead,  servant,  lOmks.  fie,  3sh  4(1  ;  Robert  Jack.soune, 
servant,  lOlib  fie,  5sh,         19     8 

John  Pettersoune,  in  Thirdpart,  collier,  5mks.  val.,  8d  ;  Marion 

Reid,  his  spou,se,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    12      8 

John  Reid,  in  Walkmyllne,  8lib  val.,  worth  .500mk.s.,  2]ib 
IGsh;  Mary  Barbour,  his  spou.se,  ().sh  ;  Margt.  Pattie- 
soune,  his  mothei",  Gsh  ;  Robert  Reid,  jorneyman,  12sli; 
Wm.,  John,  Robt.,  Mary,  Elez.,  Jean,  Grissell,  and 
Anna,  childreine,  each  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Clymie,  sert.,  14lib 
lO.sh  fie,  7sh  4d  ;  Jo.  King,  sert.,  13lib  fie,  7.sh  Gd  ; 
Catharine  Cochrane,  sert.,  121  ib  fie,  12sh,  ...  ...        8     6     0 

James  Pinkertoune,  in  Wattersyde,  wright,  8niks.  val.,  Gsh 
trade,  Gsh  pole ;  Mary  Eweing,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  David 
Pinkertoune,  his  fayr.,'  in  house  with  him,  Gsh  ;  Elspe 
Riddell,  20mks.  fie,  is  Gsh  8d,        1   IG     8 

'  Fayr.  =  fatlier. 


THE  TOLL   TAX   ROLL.  123 

Ro.    Orr,   in   Bridgeflatt,   vveiver,    15lib  val.,    12sh   trade  and 

pole;   Christian  Mountgomrie,  Iiis  spouse,  6sli,  ...  ...     £0   IS     0 

Jennet  Orr,  in  Shaws,  widow,  6sh,        ...  ...  ...  ...        0     G     0 

Robert  Semple,  of  Dyckhead,  gentleman,  3lib  6sli  ;  Elezabeth 
Abercrombie,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Francis,  James,  Agnas, 
and  Elez.,  childreiiie,  each  Gsh  ;  John  Robiesoune,  sert., 
12lib  fie,  12sh  ;  Marion  Hutchisoune,  sert.,  IGlib  fie,  8sh  ; 
Margaret  Caskie,  sert.,  12lib  fie,  12sh, 6   14     0 

John  Hendersoune,  in  Plainlees,  40mks.  val.,  osli  4d  ;  Margt. 
Hendersoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jean  M'Cunnochie,  sert., 
lOlib  fie,  4sh,  1      8      4 

Wm.  Allassoune,  in  Brandscroft,  36lib  val.,  Tsh ;  Wm.,  his 
sone,  6sh  ;  Ja.  How,  sert.,  17lib  fie,  8sh  Gd  :  Margt. 
AUasoune  and  Margt.  Gillies,  each  IGlib  fie,  is  8d  ;  Jo. 
XJpplay,  hervest  fie  Glib,  is  3sh,     ...  ...  ...  ...        2    17     ('> 

William  How,  cotter,  3-r. 

John  Allan,  weiver,  cotter,  yr.,  12sh  trade  and  pole,...  ...        0   12     0 

Catharine  Patiesoune,  his  mother,  living  on  charity. 

Robert  Allan,  cotter,  yr.,  workman,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...        0      6     0 

Robert  Speir,  in  Corslett,  93lib  val.,  IBsh  8d  ;  Agnas  Orr,  his 
spouse,  Gsh;  Robert  King,  sert.,  20lib  13sh  4d  fie,  lOsh 
4d;  Margt.  Allan,  servant,  ISlib  fie,  9s;  Elez.  Terbert, 
sert.,  15lib  Gsh  8d  fie,  7sh  8d ;  Agnas  Caldwall,  sert., 
lllib  Gsh  8d,  5sh  8d  ;  John  Plewright,  hervest  fie  Glib, 
is  2sh  ;  Matt.  Neasmith,  hervest  fie  Glib,  is  3sh  ;  Cath- 
arine Hendersoune,  hervest  fie,  lOmks.,  3sh  4d  ;  Hugh 
Crafoord,  herd.  Glib  tie,  is  3sh,       419      G 

James  Clerk,  yr.,  4Glib  val.,  9sh  2d  ;  Mertha  Clerk,  his  spouse, 
Gsh  ;  Wm.  Blair,  sert.,  20lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Jean  Connell, 
sert.,  IGlib  fie,  8sh  ;  James  Andrew,  herd,  Blib  fie,  4sh,...        3      12 

John  Clerk,  yr.,  4Glib  val.,  9sh  2d  ;  Elez.  Mountgomrie,  his 
spouse,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Miller,  sert.,  IGlib  fie,  8sh  ;  William 
Reid,  in  hervest  Glib  fie,  3sh,         1    18     2 

Thomas  Orr,  in  St.  Bryde's  Chappell,  weiver,  2lib  Gsh  8d,  val, 
Gsh  trade,  Gsh  pole  ;  Issobell  Jamiesoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ; 
Wm.  Reid,  prentice,  Gsh,...  140 

William  King,  in  Craigneock,  20lib  val.,  4sh  ;  Margt.  Speir, 
his  wife,  Gsh  ;   William,  his  sone,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Love,  ser- 


124  KILBARCHAN. 

vant,  r2lil)  fie,  l'2,sli  ;   .Tolm  Houstoune,  liervest  fie   fillb, 

is3sli,  £1    17     0 

Issoball  King,  cotter,  (Jsh,  0      G      0 

Gavin  Houstoune,  cotter. 

William  King,  in  Auchindinuane  Myllue,  GOllb  val.,  12sh  ; 
Elez.  Cochrane,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  Pettersoune 
and  Agnas  Scocli,  servants,  each  20mks.  fie,  is  Osh  8d  ; 
and  James  Steinsoune,  harvest  fie  8Hb,  is  4sh  ;  James 
Carswall,  hervest  fie  8hb,  is  4sh  ;  Agnas  Miller  and  Elspet 
Caldwall,  hervest  fies  each  6lib,  is  3sh  each  of  them  ;  and 
James  M'Kemie,  herd,  4lil)  fie.  2sh,  ...  ...  ...        3    12      4 

James  Carsv^^all,  cotter. 

James  Brodine,  smith  in  Bridge. 

John  How,'  of  Damptoune,  G2lib  13sh  4d  value,  4lib  Gsh  ; 
Sussanna  Cuninghame,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Issobell,  John, 
James,   Margt.,   and  Anna  How  his  childreine,  each  Gsh,        G     2     0 


ClotJio'Irlcl: 

Robert  8peir,  yr.,  llGlib  13sh  4d  val..  llib  3sh  4d  ;  Margt. 
King,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  King  and  Jennet  M'Kie, 
servants,  each  20mks.  fie,  Gsh  8d  ;  Robert  Speir,  his  sone, 
Gsh  ;  Ro.  Love,  Dlib  hervest  fie,  4sh  6d  ;  John  Thom- 
soune,  8lib  hervest  fie,  4sh  ;  Isso.  Crafoord,  Jonnet  Aikin- 
head,  and  Mary  C':impbell,  each  Gliij  hervest  fie,  mde.  4lib 
4sh  2d,  4      4      2 

Robert  Baveradge,  of  Greinsyde. 

Niniaii  Terbert,  Greinsyde,  23lib  Gsh  8d  val.,  4«h  8d  ;  Jonnet 

Orr,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  and  Nininn,  his  sone,  Gsh,...  ...        1      2      8 


1  According  t<>  William  Scmple,  no  fewer  than  twelve  of  tlie  name  '•  John  How"  successively 
occupied  and  owned  Danitonn.  "  The  profession  of  medicine  was  hereditary  in  tlie  faniili'— not 
less  than  eight  of  its  members  having,  in  succession,  belonged  to  it,  all  residing  at  Damtnun  or 
Penneld."  Tlie  last,  John  How,  surgeon  at  Damtoun,  died  in  181C,  at  a  great  age.  [Crawford  and 
Semple'siioi.h-eic.s/u'ce;  Hector's /Mrfu-/(«i  Recuids,i\..  pp.  63-7.]  Sometimes  the  ladies  How  followed 
the  vocation  of  midwife.  The  Jolni  How  of  the  Roll,  it  is  worth  remarking,  did  not  pay  £12,  the  tax 
to  which  a  Doctor  of  Medicine  was  liable,  but  only  £4  as  a  heritor.  Mrs.  Rankin  of  Muthill, 
daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  M'Cnlloch,  West  Cliurch,  Greenock,  is  a  descendant  of  the  Hows. 
Amongst  the  older  gravestones  in  Kilbarchan  Kirkyard  are  those  which  mark  the  last  resting-place 
of  members  of  this  faniilv. 


THE  POLL   TAX   ROLL. 


NctherpciuiL'U. 


Anna  Merschell,   heretrix  of  Nethei-|:)eiHiell,    94lil)   val.,    4lilj 

Gsh  ;  jMaiy  Merscliell,  lier  sister,  Gsb,       1'4    1 1!     0 

John  Hair/  yr.,  llOlil)  val.,  llib  2sh  ;  Issobell  Brodine,  liis 
spouse,  6sh  ;  Jolui  HaLri^-  and  his  wife,  in  hervest  8Hh,  is 
4sh  ;  John  Wright,  in  hervest  SHb  tie,  4sb  ;  William 
Hair,  his  brother,  six  shill.,  ...  ...  ...  ...        2      8      0 


Major  Ilamilfoune's  Laiuh  aji'l  William  Craiys. 

Andrew  How,  ofPennell,  heretor,  lOOlil)  v.il  ,  4lib  Gsh  ;  Jennet 
Allassoune,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  And.  and  Margt.  Hows, 
childreine,  each  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Aikine,  servant,  IGmks.  fie, 
5sh  4d  ;  Agnas  Houstoune,  servant,  14lib  tie,  7sh,  ...        G      8      4 

James  Craig,  yr.,  lOlib  3s  4d  val.,  2sh  2d,  mert.,  no  stock,  12si)  ; 
Jennet  Reid,  his  .spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jean  Pattiesoune,  seit., 
Slibfie,  4sh,  ISO 

William  Hamiltoune,  cooper,  12sh  ;  Bessie  Andrew,  his  spouse, 

Gsh, 0   18     0 

John    Barbour,    Ft)iesyde,    olib   val.,    Isli  ;  Jean   Linn,  spouse, 

Gsh,  and  Jean  Linn,  his  daur.,  Gsh,  0   13     0 

James  Thomsonne,  weiver,  yr.,  12.sli  ;  Jennet    his  sister,  G.sh,  0    18      0 

John  Barbour,  in  Forehouse,  no  stock,  12sh,    ...  ...  ...        0   12      0 

Jean  Young,  yr. 

William  Hair,  in  Boarland,  25lib  val.,  5sh  ;  Margt.  Gardiner, 

his  spouse,  Gsh:  John  Hair,  bis  sone,  Gsh.  ...  ...        13     0 

Wm.    Craiav   elder,    in   INLjnkland.     12lib    val.,    heretor,    Gsh: 


1  The  John  Hair  mentioneJ  was  probably  brother  to  Margaret  Hair,  wife  of  Professor  James 
Wodrow  (1637-1707)  and  mother  of  Robert  Wodrow,  minister  of  Eastwood,  the  Church  Historian 
(1079-1734).  Tlie  mother  of  John  and  Margaret  Hair  was  Janet  Stewart  of  Blaclihal),  descended 
from  Sir  James  Stewui  t  of  Ardgowan,  a  son  of  King  Robert  IIT.  Jean  Hair  (1777-1830),  mother 
of  the  late  Mrs.  Mathew  Anderson  {nee  Agnes  Lang)  of  Ashburne,  was  of  the  Peiinell  family, 
so  that  though  the  name  has  disappeared,  this  family  has  still  a  repre.sentative  in  the  parish. 

2  There  are  only  two  names  preserved  now  in  connection  witli  the  heritages  which  ancestors  of 
the  same  name  enjoyed  in  1695— Cnninghaine  in  Craigends  and  Craig  in  Monkland.  The  present 
proprietors  of  Monkland,  Hugh  and  William  Craig,  represent  the  si.xth  generation  from  William 
Craig  and  Agnes  DaB",  his  wife,  who  in  1672  obtained  sasine  from  the  Earl  of  Dnndonald  of  lands, 
part;  of  which  was  known  as  Mnngo'-i  Acre.     To  them  succeeded  a  grandson  James  Craig,  son  of 


120  KILBAECHAN. 

Agnas  Daft',  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Wni.  Craig,  his  sone,  Gsh  : 

Agnas   Park,   his  spouse,    Gsh  ;  Elspet  TayUor,  Glib  her- 

vest  fie,  3sh,  £1      7     0 

James   Miller,  workman,  Clockhodrick,   Gsh  ;  Grizell  Eweing, 

his  spouse,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   12     0 

John    Wilsoune,   workman,   yr.,    Gsh;    Issobell    Mersliell,   his 

spouse,  and  Margt.,  his  daur.,  each  six  shill.,      ...  ...        0   18     0 

William  Stewart,  cotter,  workman,  yr.,  Gsli  ;  Issobell  Calume, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        012     0 

Niniaii  Terbert,  weiver,  yr.,  12sh  ;  Jonnet  King,  spouse,  Gsh; 

David  Broadine,  prentice,  Gsh,       ...  ...  ...  ...        1     4     0 


The  Lands  of  BnnitsJtcills, 
Belonging  to  the  Earle  of  Diindonald. 

John  Cumine,  Bruntsheills,  40lib  val.,  8sh  ;  Jean  Killpattrick, 
spouse,  Gsh;  Ja.  Miller,  sert.,  28lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Margt. 
Wilsoune  and  Jonnet  Barbour,  servants,  14lib  13sh  4d, 
each  7sh  4d  ;  James  Miller,  in  hervest  lOmks.  fie,  3sh 
4d  ;  Ja.  Adam,  in  hervest  Slib  fie,  3sh, 3     9      0 

James  Barbour,  cotter,  workman,  Gsh  ;  Jean   Hunter,  spouse, 

Gsh, 0    12     0 

Alex.  Speir,  wright,  1  2sh  ;  Margt.  Terbert,  his  spouse,  Gsh,...        0    18      0 

Wm.    Gibbe,   20lib   val,    4sh  ;    Margt.   Orr,   his   spouse,  Gsh ; 

Robt.,  his  brother,  and  Jean,  his  sister,  each  six  shill.,  ...        1      8      0 

Allan  Speir,  yi'.,  40lib  val.,  8sh  ;  Grizell  Orr,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ; 
Jo.  Orr,  sert.,  llmks.  fie,  3sh  4d ;  Jennet  Nivine,  sert., 
4lib  fie,  7sh  ;  Ja.  King,  hervest  fie,  lOmks.  3sh  4d  ;  I\Iar- 
garet  Terbert,  hervest  fie,  lOmks.,  3sli  4d,  ...  ...        2     9      4 


The  Lands  of  Craigends. 

Robert  Blair,  in  Auchincloich,  30lib  val.,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Blair, 
his  daur.,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  M'Clemie  and  Margt.  Clerk,  each 
12hbfie,  12sh,      ' 2     2     0 

William  Craig,  younger,  and  his  wife,  Agnes  Park  ;  James  Craig  married  Mary  Barr  in  1736.  The 
3rd  generation  is  represented  by  William,  son  of  the  above,  who  married  Jean  Kerr  ;  the  4tli 
generation  by  John  Craig,  born  in  17V3  ;  the  5th  by  John,  born  in  1808,  married  Jean  Patrick 
Parker  ;  the  Gth  by  Hngli  and  William  Craig,  issue  of  the  above  marriage. 


THE  POLL   TAX   ROLL.  127 

Alex.   Taylior,   jr.,    14lib  val.,  4sli   lOd  ;  Jonnet  Terbert,   hi.s 

sjDOUse,    6sh  ;    AYilliaiii   Taylior,   bis    sone,  G  shill.,    mde. 

llib.  Ish  lOd,  £1      1    10 

Matthew   Aikine,   yr.,    14lib.   val.,   2sb   lOd  ;  Jean  Smith,  bis 

spouse,  and  Jean,  his  daur.,  each  6sh.       ...  ...  ..         1     0   10 

Robert  Breadine,  yr.,   Ulib  val.,  2sh    lOd  ;  Margt.   Cochrane, 

his  spouse,  and  Jennet,  his  daur.,  each  Gsh,  ...  ...        1      0    10 

James  Taylior,  14]ib  val.,  2sh  lOd  ;  Jen.   Andrew,   his  spouse. 

6sh, 0   14    10 

Jennet  Cochrane,  in  Aucbiiuseal,  40mks.  val.,  5sb  4d  ;  William 

Denniestoune,  sert.,  2 llib  fie,  lOsh   6d  ;  Margt.  Mount- 

gomrie,  servant,  18lib  13.sh  4d  fie,  9sh  4d,  2     3      0 

Robert   Blair,  elder,  yr.,   20mks.   val.,   2sh  8d  ;  Jo.  Blair,  his 

sone,  6sh  ;  John  Steinsoune,  hervest  fie,  7lib,  is  3sh  Gd,  0   18-2 

Robert  Blair,  yor.,'  yr.,  ^Omks.  val.,  2sh  8d  ;   Isso.  Parker,  his 

spouse,  Gsh  ;  Isso.  Lang,  sert.,  1 01  ib  fie,  5s,  ...  ...        1      5     8 

John  Lylle,  yr..  Ulib  val.,  2sh  lOd  ;  Margt.  Orr,  spouse,  Gsh,  0  15  0 
Robert   Lylle,  yr.,   14llb.   val.,  2sh   lOd  ;  Margt.  Lylle,  daur,, 

Gsh  ;  Jennet  Hou.stoune,  hervest  fie  8  merks,  2sh  8d,  ...  0  17  8 
James  Lylle,  yr.,  24lib  val,  4sh  lOd;  Jean  Craig,  his  spouse, 

Gsh;  Robt.,  his  sone,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ..,        1      2   10 

Ninian   Parker,  in   Tore,   2llib  val.,  4sh   2d  ;  Isso.    Fleeming, 

his  spouse,   Gsh  ;  Ninian,   his    sone,   Gsh  ;  Mary  Wright, 

sert.,    14lib   13sh   4d   fie,    7sh    4d  ;   Elspeth    Park,   sert., 

12lib  fie,  12sh 2     7      G 

James    Laird,    yr.,    48lib   val.,   9sli    8d  ;    Agnas    Parker,    his 

spouse,    Gsh  ;    Margt.   Parker,   sert  ,    lOlib,   5sb  ;    James 

Parker,    herd,    8lib   fie,   4sh  ;    Neill    Pettersoune,    4iiiks. 

hervest  fie,  Lsb  4d,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        1    13     0 

Mattbow  Parker,  yr.,  53lib   G.sh    Sd   val.,  lO.sh    8d  ;    Elspeth 

Toft'ts,  his  spouse,  Gsh;  Ro.   Scot,  servant.    I  5lib  Gsh  8d 

fie,  7sh   8d  ;  Eiez.   Campbell,  servant,    14lib   Gsh    8d   fie, 

7sli  2d;  Jennet  Toft'ts,  servant,  13lib  fie,  Gsh  Gd,  ...        3     2     0 

Robert  Lylle,  in   Torebill,  2llib  val.,  4sh  2d;  Elez.  How,  bis 

spouse,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        OIG     2 

James  Lylle,  in    Hill,   47lib  val.,  9sh    Gd  ;    Jean    Park,    his 

spouse,  6s ;  Jennet  Lylle,  daur.,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...        17     6 


,  Gsh,  ... 

val.,  5,s!i  ; 

As 

;nas 

On-, 

lib   lOsh    \ 

.■;ib. 

7sb 

4d: 

1.  bis  soiie. 

Gs  : 

;  Jennet, 

128  KILBARCHAN. 

Mattbow  Ban-,  in  Buttball,  lOlib  val.,  2sb,  weiver,  Csb  trade 

6sb  pole  ;  Jennet  KeLso,  bis  spouse,  Gsb  ;  Walter  Ban 

jorneyman,  Gsb  ;  and  Margt.,  daur,  Gsb,  ...  ...  ...     £1    10     G 

Jobn   Parker,  in   Tbriplee,  24llb    lOsli 

spouse,  Gsb,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    i; 

Jobn  Watterstoune,   in  Lintwbeet,   3Gli 

Margt.  Orr,  bis  spouse,  Gsb  ;  Joli 

bis  daur.,  Gsb,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        Ill      G 

William  Barr,  in  Hallbill,  SGlib  13sb  4d  val.,  7sb  Gd  ;  Margt. 

Cocbrane,    bis    spouse,    Gsb  ;    Margt.   and    Agnes    Barrs, 

cbildreine,  eacb   Gsh  ;  Patt.   Killocb,  bervest  fie  .'^lib.,  is 

Is  Gd ;  Eupbame ,  herd,  no  fie,  ...  ...  ...        1    13      0 

James    King,  in    Mossyde,    IGlib   val.  ;    Anna    Haverage,    bis 

spouse;  Margt.  King,  his  daur.,   ...  ...  ...  ...        1      1      2 

George    Lang,  in    Coalboog.    40mks.    val..    5^b    4d  ;    Jonnet 

Caldwall,  his  wife,   Gsb  :   Katbarine  M-Neill.  liervest  fie 

5lib,  2sh  6d,  0    1  i)    10 

Tho.   Steinsoune,  Beyond  the  Hill.  1.5lil)    val.,    3sb  :    Jonnet 

Blair,  his  spouse,  Gsb,         ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        015      0 

Elspeth  M'Artour,  in  Manswray,  25mks.  val.,  3sb  4d  ;  Robert, 

James,  and  Elezabeth,  her  cbildreine,  each  Gs,    ...  ...        17      4 

William  Rodger,  yr.,  20llb  vab,  4sb  ;  Jennet  Dick,  bis  spouse, 

Gsh  ;  Jonnet  (  "aldwalb  sert..  Ulil)  13sh  4d  fie,  7sb  4d,  ...        1      9      4 
John  Cochrane,  in  Hardgate.  25mks.  val..  3sb  4d  ;  Marie  Orr, 

his  spouse,  Gs,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   15      4 

Jo.  Miller,  in   Locbersydeniyllne,   Jean    Fleming,   bis  spouse, 

20lib  val "...    "      0   IG     0 

Ja.  Stevinsoune,  yr.,   lOlib  val.,  2sb  ;  Helen   Speir,   bis  wife, 

2sh  ;  and  Jonnet,  his  daur.,  Gsb,  ...  ...  ...  ...        1      0     0 

James  Aikine,  in  Kamehill,  50lib  val..  lOsb  :  Jean  Allasoime, 

his  spouse,  6,sb  ;  Elez.  Boll,  servant,  12lib  fie,  12sb,       ...        114      0 
Jonnet  Lochead,   yr.,   SOlib  val.,   lOsh  ;  James,  Wm.,  Robt., 

and  Agnas,  her  bairnes,  each  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Lot-head,  sert., 

17mks.  fie,  5sh  8d,  ...        2   11      8 

James    Black,    in    Lochersyde,    25mks.    val,   3sh   4d  ;    Agnas 

Dick,  bis  spouse,  Gsb  ;  Jean  Houstoune,  bervest   fie   Glib, 

is  3sb,  0   18      4 

Robert  Gardiner,  yr. 


THE   POLL   TAX    KOLL.  129 

John  BaiT,  in  Bootstoune,  25lib  val.,  5sh  ;  Agnas  Hamilton, 
his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Marion  Barbour,  servant,  12lib  fie,  12sh  ; 
James  Steinsoune,  hervestman,  7mks.  fie,  2sh  4d,  ...      £111      4 

John   Orr,    in   Mains   of  Craigends,    25    merks   val.   3sh   4d  ; 

Jennet  Lochead,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    1.")     4 

James  Carswall,  yr.,   lOmks.    v-al.,   2s\\   Sd ;  Isso.    Houstonne, 

his  spouse,  6sh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        014      8 

Wm.  Caldwall,  in  Mains  of  Craigstoune.   lOmks.  val.,  Ish  8d  ; 

Marlon  Patiesoune,  his  spouse,   6sh,  ...  ...  ...        0    13      8 

John  Shaw,  yr. 

John  Dick,  yr.,  collier,  12sh  ;  Jennet  Caldwall,  his  spouse,  Gsh,        0    18      0 

James  Moodie,  weiver,  yr.,  12sh  trade  and  pole;  Margaret 
Laird,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Robert  Johnstoune  and  James 
Orr,  prentices,  each  6sh,     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        1    10     0 

Issobell  Caldwall,  yr.,  lOmks.  val.,  Ish   8d  ;   Isso.  Lylle,  daur., 

6sh, ".  0   13      8 

Arch.  Arthour,  in  Nether  Craigends,  lOOmks.  val.,  13sh  4d ; 
Jennet  Terbert,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Ptebecca,  his  daur.,  6sh; 
Agnas  Love,  sert.,  14lib  fie,  7sh  ;  Jonnett  Begg,  8raks. 
hervest  fie,  2sh  8d  ;  James  Steinsoune,  8mks.  and  one 
half  hervest  fie,  2sh  lOd  ;  Jo.  Tliomsoune,  herd,  8lib  fie, 
4sh,  2     3    10 

John  Walker,  yr..  GOlib  val.,  r2sh  ;  Jonnet  Moriesoune,  his 
spouse,  Gsh  ;  Agnas,  her  sister,  Gsh  ;  Jo.  Barr,  in  hervest 
Ghb  fie,  3sh  ;  James  Hair,  in  hervest  4lil)  fie,  2sli  ; 
Jonnet  Scot,  Glib  hervest  fie,  3sh,  ...  ...  ...        2      I      0 

James  Hair,  taylior,  yr.,   12sh  trade  and  pole  ;    .Teune  Piichie, 

his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  James  Hair,  his  sone,  Gsh,         ...  ...        1      4     0 

John  Cochrane,  in  Alkens,  GOlib  val.,  12sh  ;  Mary  Arthour, 
his  spouse,  Gsli  ;  John  Wood,  Slib  fie,  4s  :  Isso.  Miller, 
servant,  Glib  fie,  3sh  ;  Agnas  Alexr.,  servant,  12]ib  fie, 
Gsh  ;  Bo.  Love,  in  hervest  Glib  fie,  2sh  ;  Jolm  Orr,  in 
hervest  llmks.  fie,  3sh  4d,  3      2    10 

Jiinies  Si lodgrass,  taylior,  cotter,  yr.,    1 2sh    trade   and   pole; 

Helen  Liddell,  spou.se,  Gsh  ;  Wm.,  Iiis  sone,  Gsh,  ...        14     0 

John  Reid,  yr.,  fled  to  Ireland. 

John  Wallace,  cotter,  weiver,  1  2sh  ;  Jennet  Laird,  liis  spouse, 

6sh, 0    18     0 


130  KILBAKCHAX. 

James  Patiesoune,  vr.,  2111b  val.,  4sli  2d;  Margt.  Liggett,  his 

spouse,  6sh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     fO    IG      2 

Wm.   Merschell,   in   Manswray,   cotter,    workman,    Gsh  ;  Jean 

Reid,  his  spouse,  6sh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    12      0 

Wilham  Orr,  in  Kilbaichane,  workman,   Gsh  ;  Elez.  Killoch, 

his  spouse,  6.sh  ;  John  Killoch,  his  father-in-law,  Gsh  ;  and 

Elezabeth  Gibbe,  his  spouse.  Gsh  ;  Jean  Killoch,  daur,  Gsh,        I    10     0 
Tho.   Miller,  yr..  mert.,  no  stock,  12sh  trade  and  pole  ;  Jean 

Caldwall,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  and  Christian  Reid,  servant, 

16  merks  fie,  5sh  4d,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        1      9     4 

James  Bredine,  cordoner,  yr.,    12sh  trade  and  pole;  Margt. 

Merschell,  his  spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    18     0 

James  Arthour,  yr.  10  val.,  2sli  ;  Jean  Thomsoune,  his  spouse. 

Gsh;  Isso.  Stewart,  servant,  4lib  fie,  4sh,  ...  ...        I      4     0 

Robert  Speir,   mert..  yr..   no  stock,   12sh  ;  Mary  Simpsoune, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       018     0 

Francis  Houstoune,  weiver,  yr..  no  stock.  12sh  trade  and  pole; 

Catharine  How,  his  spouse.  Gsh.   ...  ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 

John  Aikine,  mert..   yr  .  no  stock,    12sh  ;    Elez.   Aikiiie.  his 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        018     0 

Margt.   Barbour,   weidow.   yr.,   Slib  val..    Ish   8d ;    Margaret 

Love,  her  daur.,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        013      8 

Robert  Taylior.  vr..  Gsh;  Jean  Houstoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ; 

Issobell  Houstoune,  her  sister,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...        018     0 

Robert  Love,  smith,  yr. 

James  Rodger,  fled  to  Leland. 

James  Love,  flesher,  yr..  12sh.  trade  and  pole  :  Margt.  Lmice, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       018     0 

Umphra  Barbour,  yr.,  4lib  val.,  lOd  ;  Mary  How,  his  spou.se, 

Gsh, 

John  Glen,  yr.,  4Hb  val.,   LOd  ;  Marion  Orr,  his  spouse,  Gsh.... 
Thomas  Young,  meit..  yr.,  worth  500mks.,  and  wtin.  5000mks.. 

2lib  lOsh  ;  Margaret  Veitch,  his  spouse,  Gsh,     ... 
Wra.  Aikine.  yr..  workman,  Gsh;  Mary  Allasoune.  his  spouse. 

6sh,  ...    ' 

Marion  Orr.  weidow,  yr.,  4niks.  val.,  8d, 

Robert  Lylle,  church  officer,  Gsh  ;  Jennet  Fecknie.  his  spouse. 

Gsh, 0    12     0 

John  Pettersoune.  yr. 


0 

13 

0 

0 

12 

10 

3 

•^ 

0 

0 

12 

0 

0 

G 

8 

THE  POLL   TAX   KOLL.  131 

John  Load,  taylior,  yr.,  l'2sh  trade  and  pole  ;  Jean  Kerr,  his 

spouse,  6sh, £0   IS     0 

Jonnet  Miller,  yr.,  4lib  val..  lOd  ;  George  Siukler,  sone,  Gsh,         0   13     0 

John  Gardner,  workman. 

James  Park,  yr..  workman,   Gsh  ;  Jonnet  M'Kemie,  his  wife, 

Gsh, 0   12     0 

Robert  Gibb,  yr.,  carier,  Gs  ;  Jean  Reid,  his  spouse,  Gs. 

Archibald  Scott,  yr. 

Robert  Wodrow,  yr.,  wreight,  r2sh,  trade  and  pole  ;  Elspe 
Clymie,  his  spouse,  Gsh;  Agnas  Erskine,  sert.,  r2lib  fie, 
lOsh,  ... 1    10     0 

Jonet    Fleeming,    yr.,    weidow,    and    Catharine    Aikine,    her 

daur.,  each  Gsh,       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   12     0 

AVra.  Broune,  mert.,  yr.,  12sh  ;  Issobell  AUasoune,  his  spouse, 

Gsh;  Catharine  Cochrane,  his  moyr..  Gsh,  ...  ...        1      4     0 

William  Loads,  tayliors,  elder  and  yor. 

John  Young,  yr.,  workman,  Gsh  ;  Elspeth  Fyfe.  liis  spou.se.  Gsh,        0   12     0 

Margt.  Pettersoune,  yr.,  and  Jonnet,  her  sister,  each  Gsh,     ...        0   12     0 

Margt.  Pattiesoune,  yr. 

John  Adam,  conper. 

Robert  Miller. 

William  Cuninghame,  of  Craigends,  heretor,  above  lOOOlib 
val.,  24lib  Gsh;  his  lady  and  four  childreine,  each  Gsh; 
Alexr.,  William,  and  John,  his  sones,  each  3lib  Gsh; 
William  Alexr.,  his  servant,  40lib  iie.  llib  Gsh  ;  Wm. 
Inglice,  sert,  23lib  fie,  17sh  Gd  ;  Archibald  Scott,  ser- 
vant, 24  fie,  18sh;  Alexr.  M'Alister,  sert.,  20lib  fie,  IGsh; 
Mary  Collquhoune,  servant,  SOlib  fie,  llib  Gsb  ;  Jean 
Colquhoune,  sert.,  17lib  fie,  14sh  Gd  ;  and  Anna  Angus, 
sert,  Ulibfie,  I3sh,  mde.  42lib, 41     2   10 


Tlie   Lands  of  Over  Johnstone. 

James  King,  yr.,  IGlib  val.,  3sh  2d  ;  Agnas  Baverage,  spouse, 

Gsh;  Margaret  King,  his  daur.,  G  sh,       ...  ...  ...        1      1      4 

James  Semjile,  yr.,  3 llib  Gsh  8d  val.,  Gsh  4d  ;  Isso.  King,  his 

spouse,  G  sh.  ...  ...  .^.  ...  ...  ...        018      4 

William  Aikine,  22lib   13s  4d  val.,  4sh  Gd  ;  Jennet  Craig,  his 

spouse,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   IG     8 


132  KILBARCHAN. 

Will.    Thomsuune.   cottei".    shoemaker.   1 28h  ;   Af;-nas  Lockert. 

his  spouse,  (;sli fU    18      0 

Win.  Aikiiie.  in  Bordsyeard,  weiver.  14hb  val..  1  2sh  trade  and 
pole  ;  Joiuiet  Reid,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jennet  Alhin,  liis 
moyi'.,    Gsh  ;  Jean"  Aikine,  7  mks.  heivest  fie,  ■2sh  4d. 

Rich.    Allasoune,    wright,    12sh    trade    and    pole ;    Catharine 

Fleeniing,  his  spouse,  G  sh  ;  Jonuet,  his  daur.,  Gsh,        ...        I      4     0 

Mr.  James  Stirling',  minister.  3lib  Gsh  ;  Margt.  Dunloap,  his 
spouse,  Gsli ;  Jean  and  Bessie  Stirling.s,  childreine,  each 
Gsh  ;  James  Wayllie,  servant,  8lib  fie,  48h  ;  Jennet  Mur- 
doch, sert.,  14lib  fie,  7sh, 5     7      0 


ClippLILS. 

Hugh  Cochrane,  portioner.  yr..  4Slib  13sh  4d  val.,  but  hath 
llOmks.  more  val.,  is  Llib  lOsli  Gd  pole,  besides  generall 
pole ;  Margt.  Cochrune,  his  spouse.  Gsh  :  Hugh.  Jean. 
Elez.,  Ann,  Robert.  John,  and  Alexr.  Cochranes,  his 
childreine.  each  Gsh  ;  John  Henderson,  servant,  20lib  fie. 
IGs;  Mary  Hendersoune,  sert..  14llb  1  3sh  4d  fie,  13s  4d,        5      7    10 

Robert  Stewart,  cottar,  y\\ 

Jonnet  Shaw,  in  Linwood,  living  on  cliarity. 

Eupham  Park,  cotter,  Gsh 0     G     0 


Lair  ,,/  Ktllxorhdiw. 

Thomas  Bredlne,  in  Lawland,  22lib  val.,  4sb  Gd  ;  Jennet 
Merschell,  his  spouse,  Gsh;  Jennet  Mevschell.  sert..  lOlib 
fie,  5sh  ;  Mary  Semple,  4  lib  hervest  fie,  2.sli,      1      0     8 

John  How,  of  Braes,  50  mks.  val,  Gsh  8d  ;  Margaret  Tarbert, 

his  spouse,  Gsh.        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        CIS     8 

William  Bredlne,  weiver  in  Halrlawes,  ISlib  val..   1 2sh  trade 

and  pole  ;  Jonnet  Laird,  his  spouse,  Gsh....  ...  ...        0   18     0 

Aiidrev/  Wilsoune,  in  Goldenknows,  12lib  val.  2sh  Gd  ;  Marie 

Craig,  spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0    14     G 

Jennet   Callum,    12lib   val,,   2sh   Gd  :    John   Pettersoune,    her 

sone,  weiver,  12sh  ;  John  Thomsoune.  jorneyman.  12sh.  1    12      G 


THE  POLL   TAX   KOLL. 

John  Aikine,  weiver  in  Todholes,  2()inks.  val,  3sli  (id.  Gsli  trade, 

Gsh  pole;  Pattcick  Killoch,  prentice,  (Jsli;  Robt.  Cochrane, 

joineyman,  12sh,     ... 
John   Speir,  in  Waixlhouse,  51mli.s.  val.,  Gsh   8d  ;  Jean   Speir. 

his  mother,  and  Jean  and  Agnas,  his  sisters,  'each   Gsh  ; 

Robert  Wodrow,  sert.,  8  Kb  13sh  4d  tie.  4sh  4d. 
James  Young,^  in   Weitlands,  46hb   val.,  9sh  2d  ;  Jean  Cald- 

vvall,    his    spouse,    Gsh;    Margt.,    his    daur.,    Gsh;    Wm. 

Young,    his    brother,    Gsh  ;     Elezulieth    Aikine,    servant. 

12Ubfie,  12sh,         


Diuidouald's  Lands. 

John    Greinleis,    portioner   of  Mulrehead,  12Hb  val.,  2sh   Gd  ; 

Catharine  Cochrane,  his  spouse,  Gsh,         ...  ...  ...        0   14     G 

Hugh  Walker,  weiver,  por.  yr.,  5lib  llsh  val.,  12sh  trade  and 
pole  ;  Agnas  Stewart,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  William  Barr  and 
John  Stewart,  prentices,  each  six  shill.,  ...  ...  ...        1    10     0 

The  Lands  <>/  Blackstoune. 

Alexr.  Naper  of  Blackstoune,  gentleman,  3lib  Gsh  ;  Anna 
Naper,  goodmother,  llib  3d  pt.  of  his  pole  ;  Cat.  Naper, 
his  lady,  Gsh;  Jo.,  Alexi-.,  Margt.,  and  Anna  Napers. 
childreine,  each  Gsh  ;  David  M'Alpie,  sert.,  40lib  fie,  llib 
Gsh;  John  Foster,  sert.,  24lib  fie,  ISsh  ;  Ro.  M-Inlay, 
sert.,  20lib  fie.  IGsh  ;  Nicolas  M'Alpie,  sert..  24lib  fie. 
18sh;  Agnas  Cumine,  sert.,  IGlib  fie.  14sh  ;  Margt. 
Christie,  sert..  14sh  :  Catharine  Patiesoune,  seit..  IGlili 
fie,  Ush^nide.  in  all  lUib  12sh, 11    12     0 

Wm.   Thomsoune,   weiver,   in  Blackston,    12sh  ;  Isso.   Thom- 

soune,  his  spouse  ;  Margt.  Gemmell  in  Blackstoune,       ...        0   18     0 

John  Caldwall,  in  Nether  Blackstoune,  44lib  val.,  9sh  ;  Jean 
Boll,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Elspeth  Caldwall,  his  daur.,  Gsh  : 
Jonnet  Clerk,  sert,  IGlib  fie,  14sh,  ...  ...  ...        2     1      0 


1  On  the  lintel  of  uue  of  the  doors  at  Weitlands  may  be  seen  the  inscription — I  Y  I  C  1688 — 
which  in  all  likelihood  stands  for  '"James  Young  and  Jean  Caldwell"  his  wife  ;  the  date  is  pro- 
bably that  of  their  marriage. 


13-1  KILBARCHAN. 

Wm.   Boog,  yr.,  35lib  16sh   val.,   7sh  2d  ;  Elspeth  Boll,   his 

spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jean  and  Catharine,  his  daurs.,  each  Gsh,  ...     .£l    11      iJ 

John  Calbreath,  yr.,  22lib  llsh  val.,  4sh  6d ;  Isso.  Calbreath, 

his  spouse,  Hsh  ;  Margt.  Semple,  herd,  4lib  fie,  2sh,        ...        0   18     (J 

Patt.  Pettersoune,  yr.,  in  Selvieland,  57lib  I3sh  4d  val.,  llsh 
4d  ;  Helen  Cumine,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Ho.  Shaw,  servant, 
18lib  fie,  9sh  ;  Jennet  Pettersoune,  sert.,  lOlib  13sh  4d 
fie,  5sh  4d  ;  Margt.  Pettersoune,  sert.,  14lib  fie,  7sh  ; 
Margt.  Baird,  sert.,  lOlib  13sh  4d  fie,  5sh  4d,     3   14     4 

James  Semple,  in  Midletoune,  89lib  val,  IBsh  ;  Margt. 
Arthour,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Wm.,  Mary,  and  Agnas,  his 
hairnes,  each  Gsh;  John  Arthour,  his  brother-in-law,  Gsh; 
Robert  Dick,  sert.,  20lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Ja.  Johnstoune,  sert., 
lOlib  fie,  5sh  ;  Jean  Greive,  servant,  14lili  1 3sh  4d  fie, 
7sh4d,  4    14      4 

Hugh  Walker,  yr.,  weiver,  12sh  ;  Jennet  Walker,  sister,  Gsh  : 

James  Walker  and  Ro.  King,  prentices,  each  Gsh,  ...        1    10     0 

Robert  Ross,  nottar  publick,  4lib  Gsh  ;  Androw,  Helen, 
Robert,  Agnes,  and  Elizabeth  Rosses,  his  childreine, 
llib  lOsh, 5   IG     0 

Wm.  Gardiner  and  Wm.  Aikine,  servants  to  Robt.  Ross,  each 
22lib  fie,  llsh  each  ;  Jonnet  Lylle,  sert.,  12lib  fie.  Gsh  ; 
and  Jean  Fergow,  sert..  Glib  fie,  3sh,  and  Gsh  eacli 
generall  pole,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  .••        215     0 

Christian  Hoiistoune,  in  Linwood,  lOlib  val.,  3sh  lOd  ;  George, 
Margt.,  and  James  Semples,  childreine,  each  Gsh  ;  Ja. 
Cumine,  sert.,  20lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Jonnet  Steinsoune,  14lih 
13sh  4d  fie,  7sh  4d  ;  Isso.  Simpsoune,  servant,  20mks.  fie, 
Gsh  8d  ;  Agnas  How,  sert.,  12lib  fie,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  Semple, 
her  sister-in-law,  Gsh  ;  Wm.  King,  hervest  fie  8lib,  is  4sh; 
John  Cumine,  hervest  fie  8lib,  4sh,  ...  ...  ...        413     8 

Margt.  Boog,  cotter,  yr.,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0      G     0 

Elspet  Lamont,  cotter,  y r ...  ...  ...  ...        0     C)     0 

Wm.   Cumine,   wright,   12sh  ;  Agnas  Calbreath,  spouse,  Gsh  ; 

John  Cumine,  prentice,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...        1      4     0 

John  Cumine,  cotter,  dryster  in  Linwood,  Gsh;  Helen  Arthour, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        012     0 

Robert    Boog,   cordoner,   yr.,    12sh    trade   and    pole  ;    Agnas 

Arthour,  his  spouse,  Gsh,   ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        018      0 


£u 

(1 

u 

0 

\-2 

0 

0 

18 

0 

0 

18 

0 

1 

4 

0 

0 

12 

0 

1 

15 

() 

1 

10 

a 

THE  POLL  TAX   IJOLL. 

Robert  Barr,  cotter,  yr. 

Andrew  Gillies,  cotter,  yr 

Jennet  Arthour.  weidow,  yr.,  (!sh  ;  Jean  Stewart,  her  daur., 

Gsh.,  

Peter  Sclatter,  weiver,  yr.,  12.sli  ;  Jonnet  Sclaitter.  his  daur, 

6sh, 

Wm.  Andersoune,  under  milhier  in   Linwood,  Gsh  ;  Jean,  his 

daur.,  Gsh;  Jean  Shaw,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  ... 
John  Johnstoune,   workman,  yr.,   Gsh  ;   Maro-t.    Caldwall,   his 

spouse,    Gsh;    Jean   Merschell,   good-mother,   Gsh;    John 

Clark,  weiver,  Gsh,... 
Wm.   King,  workman,   Gsh  ;  and  Agnas,  his  daur.,  Gsh  ;  Jo. 

Clerk,  

Marg-t.   Semple,    in   Myllne  of  Cart,   22lib    Gsh  val.,  4sh  Gd  ; 

Agnas  Baird,  servant,  14lib  fie,  7sh  ;  Margt.  Park,  12lib 

fie,  Gsh,        

James  Semple,  yr.,  22lib  Gsh  val.,  4sh  Gd  ;  Anna  Cumine,  his 

spouse.  Gsh  ;  Jonnet  Johnstoune,  sert.,  20mks.  fie,  Gsh  8d, 


The  Lands  of  Selvieland. 

Alexr.  Brisbane,  por.  of  Selviland,  250mks.  val.,  4lib  Gsh  ; 
John  Whytehill,  sert.,  20lib  fie,  lOsh  ;  Jo.  Aikine,  sert., 
9lib  fie,  4sh  Gd  ;  Anna  Speir,  sert.,  IGlib  fie,  4sh,  ...        G     G     G 

Thomas   Gibsoune,   yr.,    Kilib   val.,   3sh   2d;   Jean   Lylle,   his 

spouse,  Gsh  ;   Mary  Barr,  sert.,  14mks.  fie,  4sh  8d,  ...        1      5    10 

Ptobert  Gibsoune,  yr.,  4llib  18sh  4d  val.,  8sh  (id:  Christian 
Lang,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  and  Catharine,  his  daurs., 
each  Gsh,     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        1    12     G 

The  Lands  of  Raniphorlie. 

Robert  Orr,  in  Barnbrock,  25lib  val.,  5sh  ;  Jonnet  Cumine,  his 

wife,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  Caldwall,  in  hervest  6  lib  fie,  3sh,  ...  Ill  0 
James  Orr,  yr.,  25lib  val.,   5sh  ;  Isso.   Orr,  his  spouse,   (Jsh  ; 

Jennet  Jamiesoune,  sert.,  1  Glib  fie,  14sh,  ...  ...        1    11     0 

Wm.  Aikine,  in  Barnbeth,  SOinks.  val.,  Gsh  8d;  Jonnet  Aikine, 

his  spouse,  Jo.  and  Margt.  Aikines,  childrene,  each  Gsh  ; 

Jennet  Aikine,  servant,  12lib  fie,  12sh,    ...  ...  ...        2     2     8 


13G  KILBAECHAN. 

James  Taylior,  yr.,  25mks.  val.  ;  Jannet  Sheirer,  spouse,       ...     £0   15      4 

Margt.  Caldwall,  yr. 

James   Park,   yr.,    'JSmks.    val.,   3sh   4d  ;  Jean    Maxwell,    his 

spouse,  6sh  ;  Margt.  Aikine,  sert.,  IGlib  fie,  14sh,  ...        19      4 

Matthew  Aikine,  in  Barmufflock,  25libval.,  5sh  ;  Agnas  Oir, 

his  spouse,  6sh  ;  .James  and  Jonnet,  childreiiie,  each  Gsh,  I      'J      n 

John  Aikine,  25lib  val.,  5sh  ;  Jean  Allasoune,  his  spouse,  6sh; 

Margt.  Lindsay,  sert.,  lllib  8sh  fie,  5sh  8d,         1      8    10 

George  Lylle,  in  Hatoune,  40mks.  val.,  5sh  Gd  ;  Jonnet  Iteid, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   17      G 

Hugh   Allan,   in    Shillingworth,    50inks.    val.,    Gsh   8d  ;  Jean 

Smith,  his  wife,  Gsh,  0   18      8 

James  Houstoune,  yr.,   50mks.   val.,  Gsh   8d  ;  Margt.   Black, 

spouse,  I)   18     8 

Robert   Cochrane,   yr.,   25mks.    val.,    3sh   4d.  ;    Margb.    Lang, 

spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jean  Parker,  Olib  Gsh  8d  fie,  5sh, 1      G      4 

Hugh    Cochrane,    yr.,    25mks.    val.,    3sh    4d  ;    Mertlia   Keir, 

.spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ..  ...        0   l.o      4 

Andrew  Steinsoune,   in   Broounocklie,  val.  G3lib  Gsh  Sd,  12sh 

8d  ;  Cath.  Lylle,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...        1      <")      0 

John  Thomsoune,  in  Dubs\'de, 

John  Speir,  weiver,  yr.,  12sh,    ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   12      0 

James    Steill,    in    Priestoune,    25mks.    val.,    3sh    4d  ;    Jonnet 

Androw,  spouse ;  Sarah  Ferguson,  servt.,  lOlib  fie,         ...        1      G      4 
Ninian  Orr,  in  Burnsyde,  cordoner,  5mks.  val.,  1  2sh  trade  and 

pole;  Jennet  Parker,  his  spouse,  Gsh,       ...  ...  ...        ()   18     0 

Margt.  How,  in   Horsewood,   lOlib  val.,  2sh  ;  Margt.  Parker, 

daur.,  Gsh, 0   14     0 

AVm.  Parker,  yr.,  lOlib  val.,  smith,  12sh  trade  and  poll  :  Elez. 

Love,  his  spouse,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   18      0 

Wni.  Lang,  yr.,  40mks.  val.,  osh  4d;  Jonnet  Seniple,  his  wife, 

Gsh  ;  James  and  Jean,  his  bairnes,  each  Gsh,        ...  ...        IK)     0 

Hugh  Kelso,  in  Golkhall,  8mks.  val.,  taylior,  12sh   trade  and 

poll ;  Margt.  Kelso,  his  sister,  Gsh,  0   IS     0 

Thomas  Steinsoune,  in  Calsyde,  25lib,  5sh  :   Helen  Speir,  his 

spouse,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  Lennox,  his  servant,  12lih  fie,  12sh,         19     0 
John  Adam,  in   Clevans,  ISlib  val.,  2sh  8d  ;  Agnas  Andrew, 

his  spouse,  Gs,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        nl4     8 


THE  POLL  TAX  ROLL.  137 


Tlie  Lands  of  Watterstoune. 

David   Wayllie,   26lib  val.,  osh  2d  ;   Barbara   Keneddie,   his 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     £0   17     4 

John  Allasouiie,  lUib  vah,  2sh  2d  ;  Cath.  Miller,  his  wife,  6sh,  0  14  2 
Wm.    Caldwall,  yr.,    lOlib   val.,    2sh  ;    Elspeth   Mitchell,    his 

spouse,  6sh ;  and  Wm.,  his  sone,  6sh,       ...  ...  ...        1     0     0 

John  Orr,  heretor,  yr.,  20mks.  val.,  Gsh  ;  Jean  Wilsoune,  his 

spouse,  Gsh, 0   12     0 

James  WiLsoune,  Between  the  Hills,  SGlib  val.,   heretor,  llib 

6sh  ;    James   and    Anna,    childreine,    each    Gsh ;    James 

Lylle,   Glib   hervest  fie,  3sh  ;  Margt.  Dick,  5lib,  hervest 

fie,  2sh  6d, 2     3     G 

Wm.  Wallace,  yr.,  40inks.   v;i!.,   5sh   4d  ;  John    Wallace,   his 

sone,  Gsh, 0   17      4 

Wm.    Lylle,   cordouer,    12sh    trade  and   pole  ;  Margt.  Thom- 

soune,  his  spouse,  and  James  Lylle,  his  sone,  each  Gsh....  14  0 
Robert  Gardiner,  in  Booghouse,  lolib  val.,  3sh  ;  Isso.  Miller, 

his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Margt.  and  Jean,  his  daurs.,  each  Gsh,  1      7     0 

Alexr.  Miller,  yr;,  5lib  val.,  Ish  ;  Margt.  Barr,  his  spouse,  Gsh,        0   13      0 
William  How,  ordinar  workman,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...        0      G      0 

John    Thomsoune,    yr.,    15lib    val.,   3sh  ;     Marion    Lylle,    his 

spouse,  Gsh  ;  John  Thomsoune,  his  sone,  shoemaker,  12sh,       17     0 


Windiehill. 

Richard  Hunter,  44lib  9sh  val.,  Osh  ;  Beatrix  Hamiltoune,  his 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        1      1     0 

The   Lands  of  Fidltouns. 

Wm.  Broune,  in  Little  FuUtoune,  84lib  val.,  17sh  ;  Jonnet 
Cochrane,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Isso.  Cochrane,  sert.,  lOlib 
13.sh  4d,  5sh  4d  ;  Mary  Cochrane,  sert.,  8lib  13sh  4d  fie, 

4sh4d,  ...  —  2   10      8 

Wm.  Ferrier,  cotter,  and  Mareon  Lyell,  spouse,  ...  ...        0   12     0 

Wm.  Stewart,  cotter,  yr.,  and  Isso.  Cuninghame,  his  wife,  Gsh 

each  ;  Issobell  Stewart, 018      0 

s 


138  KILBARCHAN. 

Wm.  Hendersoune,  and  Helen  Hair,  spouse;  Joiinet  Lyell,  liis 

niece,  £0   18     0 

John  Steill,  on  charity. 

John   Caldwell,   weiver  in   Moorefoot,    12sh  trade  and  pole  ; 

Margt.  Arthour,  spouse,  6sh  ;  John  Steill,  prentice,  6sh,        14     0 
John  Wallace,  yr.,  his  wife,  on  charity. 
James  Bronne,  in  Meikle  Fnlltoune,  GOlib  val.,  12sh;  Mai'gt. 

Orr,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Jennet  Orr,  his  mother-in-law,  6sh  ; 

Marion  Cochrane,  his  servant,   13lib  6sh  8d  fie,  6sh   8d  ; 

Bessie  Orr,  his  servant,  8mks.  fie,  2sh  8d,  ...  ...        2   12     0 

John  Pettersoune,  cotter,  and  Marion  Alexander,  yr.,  ...        0   12     0 

John   Broune,    yr.,   44   val,   3sh    lOd ;  Jean  Neilstoune,  his 

spouse,  6sh ;   Margt.   Laird,  his  moyr.-in-law,  6sh  ;   Jo. 

Moodie,  servant,  16lib  16sh  8d  fie,  8sh  4d  ;  Anna  Daff, 

sert.,  9lib  fie,  4sh  6d  ;  Elez.  Reid,  spouse  to  John  Moodie, 

6sh, 2   16     6 

James  Kerr,  weiver,  12sh  trade  and  poll  ;   Catharine  Gillies, 

his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Jo.  Kerr,  his  sone,  6sh,...  ...  ...        1      4     0 

James  Hall,  in  Green,  30lib  val.,  6sh  ;  Anna  King,  his  spouse, 

6sh, 0   18     0 

Issoball  Cuninghame,  cotter,  Gsh  ;  Agnas  Barr,  her  daur.,  6sh. 


Hairs  Pennell. 

Gabriel  Hendersoune,  in  Craigwoodie,  23lib  lOsh  val.,  4sh  8d: 

Margt.  Breadie,  his  spouse,  Gsh,    ...  ...  ...  ...        016     8 

Octor  Tarbert,  in  Hai'eswall,  14lib  val.,  2sh  lOd;  Jean  Adam, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        015      0 

Wm.   Cochrane,  yr.,   2Glib  lOsh  val.,   5sh  Gd  ;   Marion  Simp- 

soune,  his  moyr.,  6sh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   17     8 

James  Wayllie,  in  High    Pennell,   2Glib   lOsh    val.,  5sh  Gd  ; 

Mary  Orr,  his  spouse,  6sh,  0   17     8 

James  Wallace. 

Barr  of  Kilharchane. 

James  How,  in  Barr,  50lib  val.,  lOsh  ;  James  Cordoner,  ser- 
vant, 12lib  fie,  Gsh  ;  Jean  Liggett,  sert.,  14Ub  13sh  4d 
fie,  7sh4d;  Mary  Grieve,  sert,  14lib  fie,  7sh,     2   14     4 


THE  POLL   TAX  ROLL.  139 

Thomas  Aikine,  yr.,  25lib  val.,  5sh ;  Jounet  Cochrane,  his 
spouse,  6sh  ;  Isso.  Allasoune,  sert.,  14Ub  fie,  7sh  ;  Jennet 
Aikine,  hervest  fie  6lib,  3sh,  £1    13     0 

Wm.  How,  yr.,  colUer,  6sh  ;  and  Margt.  Clymie,  his  spouse, 

6sh, 0   12     0 


The  Lands  of  Auchinames. 

Matthew  Aikine,  yr.,  24Hb  val.,  4sli  lOd  ;  Margt.  and  Jonnet 

Aikines,  childreine,  eacli  6sh  ;  Isso.  Aikine,  sister,  6sh,...  1  8  10 
John  King,  in  Yeardfoote,  15Hb  5sh  8d  vah,  3sh  8d.  and  12sli 

trade  and  pole;  Jonnet  Cordoner,  his  spouse,  6sh;  Margt. 

King,  his  daugliter,  six  sliilHngs,  ...  ...  ...        1     4     0 

Wilham    Houstoune,    in    Pishenhnne,    24Hb    lOsh   val.,    5.sh  ; 

Elspe    Caldwall,    spouse,    Gsh  ;    Robert    Houstoune,    his 

sone,  6sh, 13     0 

James    Barbour,  in   Overtouiie,    Sllib    13sh  4d  val.,   16s.   4d ; 

Bessie   Houstoune,   his   spouse,    Gsh  ;    James    and    Mary 

Barbours,  childreine,  each  Gsh,       ...  ...  ...  ...        2     0      4 

John   Hair,    in    Colliochant,    49lib   val.,    9.sh   lOd  ;   Elezabeth 

Wilsoune,  his  spouse,   Gsh  ;  Andrew  Clymie,  sert.,  20lib 

fie,  lOsh  ;  Margt.   Wilsoune,   8mks.   hervest  fie,  2sh  8d  ; 

Cath.  Aikine,  Glib  hervest  fie,  3sh,  ...  ...  ...        23     6 

Jomes  Terbert,  yr.,  weiver,  12sh  trade  and  pole  ;  Elez.  How, 

his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 

Wm.  Gardiner,  in  Glentyane,   ventiner,  4lib   val.,   lOd  ;  Jean 

Drumont,  his  spouse,  Gsh  ;  Jennet  Gardiner,  .sert.,  13lib 

6sh  8d  fie,  Gsh  8d, 15     8 

James  Hair,  in  Mains,  24lib  val.,   4sh  lOd  ;  Jean    Calum,   his 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ..  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        017     0 

John  Love,  in  Banks,  25mks.  val.,  3sh  4d  ;  Elspe  Hatrig,  his 

spouse,  Gsh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        015      4 

James   Jacksoune,    in    Mains,    24lib     lOsh    val.,    5.sh  ;    Wm., 

Issobell,  and  Jonnet  Jacksounes,  childreine,  each  Gsh,  ...  1  9  0 
John  Young,  in  Glentyane,  Glib  val.,  bleitcher,  12sh  trade  and 

pole;  Jean  Houstoune,  his  spouse,  Gsh,    ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 

Robert  Houstoune,  flesher,  yr.,  7lib  lOsh  val.,  12sh  trade  and 

pole;  Isso.  Crafoord,  his  spouse,  Gsh,        ...  ...  ...        018      6 


0   14     0 


140  KILBAECHAN. 

John  Speir,  yr.,  5lib  val.,  Ish  ;  Isso.  Jamiesoune,  his  spouse, 

6sh  ;  John  Speir,  weiver,  his  sone,  and  Issobel,  daughter, 

12sh  trade  and  pole,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     £1     5 

John  Orr,  in  Mains,  20lib  lOsh  val.,  4sh  2d, 0   10 

Wm.  Wodrow,  in  Nivine  Croft,  20lib  val.  ;  Margaret  Duncan, 

spouse, 
Wm.  Breadine,  in  Lochpen,  16lib  val.,  3sh  2d  ;  Jonnet  Barr, 

his  spouse,  6sh,       ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        015     4 

James   Speir,   in   Kobbstoune,    24lib   lOsh   val.,    5sh ;   Jonnet 

Tarbert,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Ja.  Speir,  his  sone,  6sh,  ...        1     3     0 

James  Cumine,  in  Laumarnock,  24lib  lOsh  val.,  5sh;  Euphame 

Eweing,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  James  Cumine,  his  sone,  6sh  ; 

ElspethBooll,  servant,  13lib  fie,  6sh  6d.,  116     0 

John  Mountgomrie,  yr.,  lOlib  val.,  4sh;  Marion  Allan,  spouse, 

6sh, 0   14     0 

Issoball  Adam,  cotter,  yr.,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        060 

Wm.    Love,    in    Gladstoune,    50mks.    val.,    6sh    8d ;    Margt. 

Baverage,  spouse,  6sh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        018     8 

John  Barbour,  yor.  yr.,   25lib  val.,   5sh  ;  Jean   Wodrow,  his 

his  spouse,  6sh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   17     0 

John    Love,   in    Wardend,  46lib  val.,   9.sh   2d  ;  Margt.  Adam, 

his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Margt.  Pettersoune,  6lib  hervest  fie,  3sh,       14     2 
James  Love,  yr.,  22lib  6sh  8d  val.,  smith,  12sh  trade  and  pole  ; 

Elez.  Eeid,  his  spouse,  6sh  ;  Margt.  Love,  sert.,  12lib  fie, 

12sh,  1    10     0 

Thomas  Houstourie,  in  Mains,  40]ib  lOsh  val,  8sh  2d  ;  Elspet 

Orr,  his  moyr.,  6sh  ;  Jean  Houstoune,  sister,  6sh,  ...        1      6      6 

John  Murdoch,  in  Cartsyde,  weiver,  25lib  val.,  12sh  trad  and 

pole  ;  Jonnet  Neil,  his  spouse,  6sh,  ...  ...  ...       0   18     0 

Alexr.    Speir,   in   Kublestoune,    49lib   val.,    9sh   lOd ;   Margt. 

Blair,   his    spouse,   6sh  ;    Bo.    Speir,    servant,    19lib   6sh 

8d  fie,  4sh  8d ;  Jennet  Eeid,  sert.,  14lib  fie,  7sh ;  Margt. 

Lang,   sert.,    16lib  fie,   8sh  ;    Hugh   Wayllie,   in   hervest 

8lib  fie,  4sh;  Elspet  Scott,  7lib  6sh  Sd  fie,  3sh  8d;  Margt. 

Crafoord,  herd,  5lib  13sh  4d.  fie,  2sh  lOd,  3   15     0 

James  Houstoune,  in  Glentyane  Myllne,  6sh  ;  Jonnet  Ouplay, 

his  spouse,  6sh  ;  James  Houstoune,  his  sone,  6sh,  ...        0   18     0 

WiTi.  Houstoune,  weiver,  yr.,  12sh  trade  and  pole  ;  Margaret 

Ouplay,  his  spouse,  Gsh,     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 


THE  POLL  TAX  ROLL.  '  Ul 

James  "Wodrow,  in  Lawmarnock,  49lib  val.,  9sh  lOd  ;  Margt. 

Orr,  his  spouse,  6sh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...     £i      i    lo 

John  Wodrow,  yr.,  12hb   lOsh  val.,  2sh   8d  ;  Matt.   Wodrow, 

shoemaker,  12sh  trade  and  pole,  ...  ...  ...  ...        1     0     G 

Issoball  Adam,  cotter,  yr.,  6sh,...  ...  ...  ...  ...        060 

John  Barbour,  elder,  y r. ;  Elspeth  Blair,  his  spouse,   ...  ...        012     0 

John  Craig,  in  Cartsyde,  24lib   lOsh  val.,  5sh  ;  Margt.   King, 

his  spouse,  6sh,        ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   17      0 

John  Reid,  weiver.  yr.,  12sh  trade  and  pole;  Geills  Mount- 

gomrie,  his  wife,  Gsh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   18     0 

Alexr.  Steill,  weiver,  yr.,  12sh  trade  and  pole;  Margt.  Aikine, 

his  wife,  6sh,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...        0   12     0 

John  Houstoune,  in  Glentyane,  and  his  wife,  ...  ...  ...        0   12     0 

The  poll  list  for  Kilbarchan  Parish  was  taken  by  William  Cunning- 
ham, of  Craigends  ;  George  Houston,  of  Johnstone  ;  and  Robert  Ptoss, 
their  clerk,  and  delivered  at  Paislev  28th  October,  1695. 


Note  on  Clippexs  Succession  by  David  Semple,  F.S.A. 

This  succession  has  been  in  the  Court  of  Chancery  in  England,  and 
in  the  Court  of  Session,  Scotland,  twenty-five  years.  Clippens  estate  has 
been  settled  on  Hugh  Ferrier,  the  lineal  descendant  of  Mary  Cochran,  but 
the  personal  estate  is  still  in  Court.  The  claimants  to  this  personal 
succession  are  legion,  and  liave  appeared  from  every  part  of  the  world. 
The  child  Hugh,  in  the  roll,  had  five  children,  John,  Margaret,  Alexander, 
Mary,  and  Hugh.  John  had  five  children,  Hugh,  Peter,  Mary,  Joan,  and 
Janet.  Hugh,  Mary,  Joan,  and  Janet  all  died  without  issue.  Margaret 
was  married  to  Arcliibald  Wilson,  whose  descendants  are  now  extinct. 
Alexander  died  unmarried.  Mary  was  married  to  John  Ferrier,  and  she 
had  several  grandchildren  alive  in  1836.  Alexander  and  Hugh  died 
without  issue.  The  child  Jean,  in  the  roll,  married  William  Semple,  in 
Middleton,  and  had  two  grandchildren  alive  in  1836.  The  child  Elizabeth, 
in  the  roll,  married  Andrew  Arthur,  in  Barr,  and  had  four  grandchildi-en 
alive  in  1836.  The  child  Ann,  in  the  roll,  married  John  Anderson,  in 
Burnsyde,  and  had  one  grandchild  alive  in  1836.  The  child  Robert,  in 
tlie  roll,  died  unmarried.  The  child  John,  in  the  roll,  had  no  grand- 
children living  in  1836,  but  several  great-great-grandchildren.  The  child 
Alexander,  in  the  roll,  died  unmarried  in  1775.      Peter  Cochran,  commonly 


142  KILBARCHAN. 

called  Dr.  Cochran,  had  gone  to  India  in  his  youth,  amassed  an.  immense 
fortune,  returned  to  Scotland  in  1817,  died  in  1831,  and  his  son  died  in 
1835  without  issue.  The  chief  claimants  in  Scotland  are  descendants  of 
aunts  and  descendants  of  grand-uncles  and  grand-aunts  of  the  Doctor. 
Great  numbers  of  claimants  have  made  inquiries  after  the  money,  but  only 
a  few  have  come  into  Court.  The  descendants  of  Mrs.  Wilson,  aunt  of  the 
Doctor,  being  all  extinct,  all  claimants  through  her  are  fictitious,  and  their 
fabricated  lines  of  propinquity  will  not  bear  the  test  of  inquiry.  James 
Braidwood,  alleging  himself  to  be  a  descendant  of  Elizabeth  Wilson,  a 
daughter  of  Margaret  Cochran,  raised  an  action,  which  was  dismissed. 
Elizabeth  Wilson,  the  ancestress  of  Braidwood,  belonged  to  a  different 
family.  The  next  claimant  was  Robert  Baton,  a  great-great-grandchild  of 
the  child  Elizabeth,  in  the  roll,  who  raised  an  action  in  1855,  which  was 
decided  by  a  jury  against  him  in  1859.  He  stated  that  Hugh  and 
Margaret  Cochran  had  only  three  children,  Hugh,  Elizabeth,  and  Alex- 
ander, but  the  poll  rolls  reveal  the  fact  that  there  were  seven  children — 
Hugh,  Jean,  Elizabeth,  Ann,  Robert,  John,  and  Alexander.  The  next 
claimant  who  raised  an  action  was  Neil  Cochran.  Mrs.  Cochran  was 
owner  of  Burnside,  in  Lochwinnoch,  which  she  disponed  to  her  child 
Robert,  in  the  roll,  and  be  was  called  Robert  Cochran  o/' Burnside.  He 
let  the  farm  to  a  Robert  Cochran,  and  he  was  called  Robert  Cochrane  in 
Burnside.  Neil  Cochran  claimed  as  a  descendant  of  Robert  Cochran  of 
Burnside,  and  had  his  case  set  down  for  a  jury  trial  in  1859,  when  he  dis- 
covered he  was  a  descendant  of  Robert  Cochran  in  Burnside,  and 
abandoned  his  case.  He  was  no  relative  of  the  bachelor  landlord,  but  a 
descendant  of  the  married  tenant.  The  next  person  who  instituted  legal 
proceedings  is  John  M'Lachlan,  Kilmarnock,  who  claims  as  a  great-great- 
grandson  of  the  child  John.  He  may  be  a  descendant  of  a  John  Cochran, 
but  he  is  not  the  descendant  of  the  John  Cochran  mentioned  in  the  poll 
roll.  The  claimants  Paton,  Cochran,  and  M'Lachlan  all  alleged  that  Mrs. 
Ferrier  was  illegitimate,  and  claimed  to  be  next-of-kin  to  the  Doctor. 
The  grand-parents  of  both  Paton  and  M'Lachlan  (if  the  propinquity  of  the 
latter  was  correct)  being  dead  previous  to  1831,  Paton  and  M'Lachlan, 
consequently,  cannot  be  the  next-of-kin  to  the  Doctor,  while  sevoal 
grandchildren  of  the  grand-aunts  of  the  Doctor,  who  are  two  degrees 
nearer,  were  alive  at  the  death  of  his  son  in  1835.  These  two  claimants, 
Paton  and  M'Lachlan,  if  the  propinquity  of  the  latter  were  true,  can 
never  succeed  in  their  pretended  right.  Neither  the  great-great-grand- 
children, nor  even  the  grand-children  of  Jean,  Elizabeth,  Ann,  and  John 


THE   POLL   TAX   ROLL.  US- 

Deed  distress  themselves  about  the  money,  because  that  line  can  never 
establish  the  unfounded  allegation  that  Mrs.  Ferrier,  the  law^ful  daugliter 
of  Hugh  Cochran,  sister  of  John  Cochran,  and  aunt  of  the  Doctor,  was 
illegitimate.  Jean  Cochran  was  the  great-grandmother  of  the  compiler  of 
the  present  publication  (sc.  David  Sample) ;  and  his  father,  John  Semple, 
who  was  alive  at  the  death  of  the  Doctor's  son,  knew  all  his  Semple  and 
Cochran  relations,  and  particularly  the  child  Alexander,  in  the  roll, 
commonly  called  Sergeant  Cochran,  his  and  the  Doctor's  grand-uncle, 
who  died  in  1775,  with  whom  he  had  many  conversations  in  his  youth. 

N'ote  on  the  Semples  of  Middleton  by  David  Semple,  F.S.A. 

William  Semple  is  the  great-grandfather  of  the  com|)iler  of  the 
present  publication.  He  married  Jean,  eldest  daughter  of  Hugh  Cochran, 
of  Clippens,  in  1705.  Tradition  has  handed  down  that  this  family  had 
been  tenants  in  Middleton  for  400  years.  The  compiler,  however,  is 
never  satisfied  with  these  oral  accounts  (which  can  be  altered  to  assume  a 
magnified  or  distorted  form  according  to  the  enthusiasm  of  the  narrator, 
to  impose  on  the  credulous),  unless  they  are  corroborated  by  an  authentic 
document,  which  continues  always  the  same.  The  first  written  evidence 
the  compiler  found  was  In  the  Court  Books  of  the  Regalitie  of  Paisley, 
under  date  1st  April,  1596,  when  John  Semjjle,  tennant  In  Middletoun, 
pursued  Steven  Cumming,  in  Candraneburne,  for  payment  of  4lib  money, 
the  price  of  6  bolls  of  black  oats,  at  13sh.  4d.  per  boll ;  and  xxiii  sh.  for 
half  a  boll  of  gray  corne  and  seconds.  Another  entry  In  the  same  Court 
Books,  under  date  28th  July,  1598,  when  John  Vause,  the  Fiscal,  com- 
plained against  William  Sempl,  burgess  of  Dumbarton,  and  John  Sempl, 
in  MIddeltoun,  for  Invading  each  other  with  drawn  swords.  John  Semple 
appeared,  and  confessed  that  he  "drew  ane  sword  and  struck  the  said 
William";  and  Gavand  Stewart  appeared  for  William  Semple,  and  denied 
the  complaint.  The  Fiscal  then  proved  It,  when  the  j^arties  were  fined  in 
X.  libs  each  for  a  breach  of  the  peace.  The  family  ofSemj^le  continued  in 
the  farm  of  Middleton  from  1596  till  1852,  in  lineal  descent  from  1st 
John  the  gladiator,  as  follows  : — 2d,  Thomas  ;  3rd,  Andrew  ;  4th,  James  ; 
5th,  William  ;  6th,  James  ;  7th,  James  ;  and  8th,  James  Semple — a 
period  of  256  years,  embracing  eight  generations.  All  the  receipts  for 
the  rents  from  1666  to  1852,  inclusive,  a  period  of  187  years,  have  been 
preserved,  and  are  bound  in  two  volumes,  In  the  possession  of  the  last 
tenant,  Mr.  James  Semple. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

KiLBARCHAN   DURING  THE   EIGHTEENTH    CeNTURY. — ECCLESIASTICAL  AND 

Educational  Affairs  and  the  Provision  for  the  Poor. 


The  twa  best  herda  in  a'  the  wast, 
That  e'er  gae  gospel  horu  a  blast, 
These  five  and  twenty  simmers  past, 

Oh  !  dool  to  tell, 
Hae  had  a  bitter  black  outcast 

Atween  themsel. 

— Burns. 

Parish  ministers  in  the  eighteenth  century — Johnstone — Warner,  the  agriculturist — Maxwell, 
contributor  to  the  Old  Statistical  Account^The  Secession  Congregation  at  Burntshiels — The 
Burgher  Kirk  and  its  ministers — M'Cara — Lindsay — Wylie — Relief  congregation  at  Kilbar- 
chan — The  Church  and  its  first  minister,  John  Maclaren — A  new  parish  church  at  Kilbarchan 
— Two  classes  of  heritors — A  new  manse — Latin  inscriptions — Educational — Schools  and 
schoolmasters — Tenent — Cowie,  the  recalcitrant — Reid,  the  unencouraged — Michael  Garner — 
Simson — Ferguson — Manson— The  school  of  1751 — Rebuilt  in  1782 — School  at  Burntshiels — 
Hallam — Porterfield,  the  cobbler — The  Poor — How  the  Session  provided  for  them — A  badge 
given  to  the  deserving — Great  number  of  beggars — Kirk  Session  finance — Income  and  expendi- 
ture, 1742  and  17G9 — Educating  the  children  of  the  poor — Liberal-minded  charity — Variety  of 
charitable  schemes — Sources  of  Kirk  Session's  income — The  kirk  plate — Banking  business  and 
legacies —Boydsyard — Mortcloths — Confiscation  and  booking  money — Irregular  marriages — 
Other  sources  of  income— Pew  rents — Provision  for  Poor  after  1785 — Assessment — The  Com- 
munion— Privy  censures  and  collections — Putting  up  the  tent — Casting  tokens — Burntshiels 
communions. 


Parish   Ministers. 

After  the  ti-anslatiou  of  James  Stirling  to  the  Barony,  tliere  was  a 
vacancy  of  nearly  two  years  in  Kilbarchan.  In  May,  1700,  the 
parishioners  had  made  up  their  minds  to  call  Mr.  Alexander  Muir,  after- 
wards of  Rutherglen,  and  several  months  passed  before  that  gentlemen 
gave  a  decided  answer.  He  does  not  say  so,  but  it  is  probable  that  his 
objection  to  Kilbarchan  was  that  both  church  and  manse  were  ruinous. 
In  November  the  parishioners  called  Mr.  Robert  Johnstone,  but  the 
Presbytery  delayed  his  settlement  until  Craigends,  the  chief  heritor, 
had  given  a  solemn  promise  to  put  the  ecclesiastical  buildint;s  into  good 
repair'. 


KILBAKCHAN   DURL\(i   THE  EIGHTEENTH   CEXTUllY.  145 

At  the  time  of  his  .settlement  Johnstone  wns  twenty-eight  years  of 
a^e.  As  he  had  been  tlie  Presbytery  of  Dunfermhne's  bursar,  he  probably 
belonged  to  that  part  of  the  country.  He  was  educated  at  Glasgow,  and 
was  licensed  by  the  Presbyterv  of  Paisley  in  May,  1700.  The  date  of  his 
ordination  at  Killiarclian  is  IGtli  April,  1701.  Like  his  predecessor  he 
was  sent  to  Aberdeen — the  Granite  City  often  borrowed  preachers — 
*■  with  iiermission  to  stay  for  two  months  if  the  Aberdeen  people  wished 
him  so  long." 

Johnstone  has  left  beliind  him  the  reputation  of  having  been  an 
evangelical  preacher;  he  was  also  a  man  of  affiuis.  being  appointed  Pres- 
b3'tery  clerk  in  1703,  and  treasurer  in  1712;  he  was  conunissioned  to  go  to 
Edinburgh  and  consult  lawyers  regarding  a  knotty  point  in  Church  law 
connected  with  the  Second  Charge  of  Paisley  Abbey  [May,  1708]  ;  he  got 
a  new  church  built  in  1724,  and  what  was  substantially  a  new  manse  in 
1730.  In  1718  he  received  a  presentation  to  the  Parish  of  Houston,' 
which,  apart  from  Kiilalhm  as  it  tlien  was,  was  probably  a  poorer  living 
tlian  Kilbarchan,  but  had  pei'haps  compensating  advantages.  The 
Presbytery  .saved  him  from  the  ungracious  task  of  decHning  the  ofter  by 
"  protesting  against  presentations  as  an  invasion  upon  the  privileges  of 
this  Church,  and  causing  the  presentation  to  be  delivered  back."  Towards 
the  clo.se  of  his  ministry  he  got  himself  into  rather  seririis  trouble,  and 
was  sharply  rebuked  by  the  Moderator  of  the  Presbytery  for  having 
married  one  of  his  parishioners  to  a  lady  without  the  proclamation  of 
banns  [December  17,  173.5]. 

Mr.  Johnstone  married  Ann.  youngest  daughter  of  Claud  Hnmilton 
of  Bai'nes,  and  had  issue,  a  son  (James)  and  three  daughters  (Anna.  Mary, 
Margaret).  James  was  a  major  in  the  filst  Foot,  and  a  daughter  of  his 
(Mary  Anne)  was  married  to  Francis,  Lord  Gray  of  Kinfauns.  Anna, 
Johnstone  was  married  to  William  CuUen,  the  distinguished  physician, 
who  occupied  professorial  chairs  at  both  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh,  and 
was  founder  of  Glasgow  Medical  School  and  of  Ediidjiu'gh  Royal  Medical 
Society,  and  who  had  amongst  his  pupils  William  Hunter  of  the  Hunterian 
Museum,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Black,  the  celebrated  chemist.  At  his  death 
the  debts  owing  to  Johnstone  amounted  to  £9863  Sc,  i.e..  £822  sterling. 
He  died  27th  October,  1738,  in   the  si.xtv-fifch   year  of  his  ao:e   and    the 


iJ  of  Houston   was  5  ch.-vlders,  12   bolls,   3  firlets   victual;  £53  8s.   10.1. 
.allowance  for  comiimnlon  eleinents.     Killailan,  5  clialders  victual,  £100 


Mn  ] 

!739 

the 

stip. 

Sc. 

small 

vicai 

raue 

s  ;  n^ 

Sc. 

suiall 

vicar 

af,'es 

1,  20 

146  KILBARCHAN. 

tliirty-eio-lith  of  his  ministry,  and  was  buried  [8th  November]  at  the  west 
door  of  the  church,  where  a  mural  tablet  marks  his  grave.  The  inscrip- 
tion concludes  with  a  Latin  sentence,  forbidding  anyone  to  disturb  his 
remains,  "  Ne  liceat  nenn'ni  defodere  banc  urnam." 

John  Warner,  born  in  1713,  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Irvine 
1737,  was  the  second  son  of  William  Warner,  proprietor  of  Ardeer, 
Stevenston.  The  Warners  were  a  clerical  family.  The  grandfather  of 
John  Warner  of  Kilbarchan  had  been  Minister  of  Irvine  [1688-1702] 
as  well  as  proprietor  of  Ardeer,  and  an  aunt,  Margaret  Warner,  was 
mnrried  (1)  to  Ebenezer  Veitch,  Minister  ol  Ayr  [l703-i3],  and  (2)  to 
Kobert  Wodrow,  Minister  of  Eastwood,  historian  of  the  Church.  His 
great  grandfather  was  William  Guthrie,  Minister  of  Fenwick,  "  a  great 
humorist,  a  great  sportsman,  a  great  preacher,  a  great  writer,"  author  of 
A  Saving  InUrest  in  Christ,  a  book  the  merits  of  which  have  lately  been 
re-discovered;  and  tliis  Gutln-ie  of  Fenwick  was  cousin  to  Guthrie  of 
Stirling,  the  martyr,  wlioni  Cromwell  once  descriljed  as  '■  the  short  man 
who  could  not  bow." 

In  spite  of  so  distinguislied  an  ancestry  there  was  some  unpleasant- 
ness connected  with  Warner's  settlement  in  Kilbarchan.  Mr.  John 
Buchanan,  a  licentiote  who  had  sometimes  suppUed  the  pulpit  dm-ing 
the  old  minister's  illness,  had  a  considerable  following.  We  bear  of  a 
tumult  at  the  election,  of  a  Paper  of  Association  signed  by  five  elders,  of 
the  Presbytery  looking  on  the  case  as  novel  and  important  ;  yet  Warner 
had  good  friends,  Craigends  amongst  them,  and  so  in  spite  of  the  opposi- 
tion he  was  ordained  8th  September,  1739,  and  was,  it  is  said,  received 
cheerfully  by  the  heritors,  elders,  and  others  present.  In  the  course 
uf  the  next  five  years  the  dissenters  found  refuge  in  the  Secession  C!on- 
gregation,  which  met  at  Burntshiels. 

Mr.  Warner  took  a  great  interest  in  agriculture  and  education.  His 
glebe,  extending  only  to  four  and  a  half  acres  Scots,  part  of  which  was 
built  u]ion,  aiforded  him  too  little  scope  for  his  energies,  and  .so  he  was 
the  more  ready  to  embrace  the  offer  made  him  in  1751  by  James  Milliken 
to  exchange  the  old  glebe  for  one  four  or  five  times  as  large  cm  the  lands 
of  Over  Johnstone.  It  was  under  his  auspices  that  the  Kilbarchan 
Farmers'  Society  took  origin  in  1765,  and  two  addresses  he  delivered  to 
this  Association  embodying  the  results  of  his  own  experience — "On  a  Wet 
Harvest  "  and  "  On  the  Hay  Croj)  " — were  afterwards  published,  and  had 
a  considerable  circulation  ;  he  thus  anticipated  the  kindly  interest  which 
modern  County  Councils  take  in  agriculture  by  introducing  new   notions 


KILBAKCHAN   DUKIXG   THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  147 

and  new  metlious  to  the  notice  ot"  a  class  constitutionally  conservative. 
It  was  due  to  his  efforts  that  a  school  was  built  in  1751,  and  rebuilt 
thirty-one  years  later,  and  that  a  better  qualified  teacher  was  appointed. 
When  the  Ministers'  Widows'  Fund  was  started  in  1742  he  was  one  of 
those  who  thought  that  £14,  not  £20  as  proposed,  should  be  the  annuity, 
on  the  ground  that  entry  money  ot"  £20  and  an  annual  pnynient  of  £4 
were  too  much  for  a  minister  to  give  ;  it  is  not  surprising  that  one  airing 
such  views  should  have  died  a  bachelor.  In  1774  Mr.  Warner  had  a 
paralytic  stroke,  and  for  more  than  a  year  he  could  not  even  meet  with 
his  elders  in  session.  Though  he  never  entirely  recovered  he  found  him- 
self able  to  resume  his  duties,  and  he  continued  to  preach  for  eleven  years 
longer,  being  assisted  by  the  neighbouring  ministers,  and  by  two  helpers, 
Mr.  William  Boyd,  afterwards  Minister  of  Fenwick  [1782-1828],  to  whom 
reference  is  made  in  Burns'  poem  "  The  Ordination,"  and  Mr.  William 
Brown,  afterwards  Minister  of  Eskdalemuir  [1792-1835]. 

Warner  died  8th  March,  1786,  and  was  buried  beside  his  pre- 
decessors, where  an  obelisk  has  been  ei-ected  to  his  memory  by  his 
nephew,  Patrick  Warner  of  Ardeer. 

In  1750,  the  second  James  Milliken  purchased  the  Patronage  of 
Kilbaichan.  He  died  in  1776,  and  his  trustees,  on  the  death  of  Warner, 
issued  a  presentation  in  favour  of  the  Rev.  Patrick  Maxwell,  who  was 
then  a  chapel  minister.  This  was  the  first  time  since  1G05  that  a  lay 
patron  had  exercised  his  right  in  the  case  of  a  Presbyterian  Minister  in 
Kilbarchan,  and  as  might  be  expected  the  people  were  not  prepared  to 
give  a  hearty  welcome  to  the  presentee.  It  w;is,  however,  rather 
difficult  to  make  out  a  good  case  against  Maxwell,  who  seems  to  have 
been  a  very  worthy  man.  He  had  been  tutor  in  the  family  of  the  patron 
and  had  probably  been  promised  the  presentation  when  Warner  first  fell 
ill.  The  case  on  which  the  opposition  had  to  rely,  and  to  which  the 
Presbytery  lent  a  sympathetic  ear,  was  that  the  right  of  patronage 
belonged  not  to  the  trustees,  but  to  Captain  Napier  of  Culcreuch.  A 
diligent  canvass  was  made  of  the  parish.  Maxwell's  call  was  signed  by 
heritors  possessed  of  nine-tenths  of  the  land  in  the  parish,  l)y  all  the 
elders,  and  by  many  heads  of  families.  The  opposition  led  by  William 
Barr  of  Cartside,  John  Galbraith  in  Thirdpart,  John  Cochrane  in  Lin- 
wood,  James  Lyle  in  Torr,  and  William  Lang  in  Bridge  of  Weir,  had  the 
support  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  heads  of  families  and  inhabitants  in  the 
Town  and  Parish  of  Kilbarchan.     The  case  was  appealed  to  the  Assembly, 


148  KILBAKCHAN. 

and  the  supreme  court  held  that  the  Preshytery  had  heen  guilty  of  most 
unjustifiable  delay,  and  ordered  that  Mr.  Maxwell  be  forthwith  inducted. 

The  legal  proceedings  occupied  the  best  part  of  a  year.  Maxwell 
was  inducted  on  the  5th  July,  1787,  but  meanwhile  the  Relief  Congrega- 
tion had  taken  form.  The  existence  and  undeniable  prosperity  of  tliis 
body  must  have  been  extremely  galHng  to  Maxwell.  It  met  him  on  the 
threshold  of  his  ministry.  Moreover,  he  had  come  to  that  time  of  life — 
he  was  over  forty  to  a  certainty,  perhaps  nearly  sixty — when,  with  tlie 
buoyancy  of  youth  departed,  discouragement  counts  for  much.  In  the 
Old  Statistical  Account  he  naively  remarks  that  while  the  baptisms  per- 
formed by,  or  under  the  auspices  of  the  Parish  Minister,  numbered  eighty- 
six  in  1781,  they  had  fallen  to  twenty-seven  in  1700.  Another  index  of 
the  [leculiar  difficulties  he  had  to  encounter  is  lound  in  this — that  during 
his  ministry  no  new  elders  accepted  ofHce  ;  there  was  indeed  no  admission 
of  elders  between  1773  and  1807,  a  period  of  thirtv-four  years.  It  would. 
however,  be  doing  a  grave  injustice  to  Maxwell's  memory  to  think  dis- 
respectfully of  him  ;  many  a  good  man  has  failed  to  please  the  people, 
often  because  he  has  had  a  higher  standard  than  popular  applause. 
Maxwell's  contribution  to  Sir  John  Sinclair's  Statistical  Account  com- 
pares favourably  with  the  best.  His  remarks  on  the  origin  of  mosses, 
introduced  in  connection  with  Lin  wood  Moss,  has  become  almost  a  classic, 
being  quoted  without  criticism  by  Dr.  Robert  Munro  in  his  recent  work 
on  Pn'hiatoric  Scotland.  In  his  time  the  ecclesiastical  fabrics  were  kept 
in  good  repair,  and  he  had  a  Session  House  and  a  gate  for  the  churchyard 
erected. 

Ill  1802  Mr.  Maxwell,  having  secured  the  help  of  the  Rev.  Robert 
Douglas  as  assistant  and  successor,  retired  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  died 
19th  December,  1806.  The  blank  mural  tablet  beside  Johnstone's  on  the 
wall  of  the  church  was  probably  intended  to  bear  his  name.  He  was 
married  (1)  to  Elizabeth  Cochrane  '27th  Jan.,  1789  who  died  22n(l  October, 
1803;  and  (2)  to  Chailotte  Sprengell  24th  December,  1804,  who  survived 
him  and  died  at  Portobello  22nd  November,  1832. 


Bimjhcr  Church   at  Burntshiels. 

The  formation  of  the  Secession  Congregation  and  the  erection  of  a 
church  and  manse  at  Burntshiels  are  understood  to  have  been  due  to 
various  unpopular  settlements  of  parish  ministers  throughout  the  district, 


KILBARUHAX    DURING   THE   EIGHTEEXTH   CENTURY.  14i7 

such  as  Mr.  John  Fleming's  .settlement  at  Kilniacohn  in  1737,  and  Mr. 
John  Warner's  at  Kilbarclian  in  1739.  In  1738  there  ^vere  reHglons 
meetings  at  Killochvles  in  Kilni.icolni — in  the  open  air  when  tlie  weather 
wa.s  fine,  in  a  barn  when  shelter  was  imperative.  The  Kilharchan  seceders 
met  at  Burntshiels,  and  were  joined  there  by  their  brethren  from  Kilma- 
colm  asearly  as  1740.  This  was  one  of  the  earhest  communities  of  the  kind, 
standing  in  order  of  priority  of  formation  sixteenth  on  the  list.  There 
was  no  settled  Minister  until  1744.  when  Mr.  John  M'Cara  was  ordained 
in  the  open  air  [llth  September].  In  the  cour.se  of  the  next  year  both  a 
church  and  a  manse  were  provided.  The  church,  which  was  called  "  The 
Bigg  Sclate  House  "  or  "  The  New  Kirk  at  Burntshiels,"  is  said  to  have 
been  seated  for  six  hundred.  ""  The  rafters  were  dragged  up  from  the 
shore  at  the  horses'  tails,  and  the  walls  were  built  by  the  people  them- 
selves."' At  Mr.  M'Cara's  first  communion  no  fewer  than  33G  persons 
collected  from  seventeen  parishes,  sat  at  the  tables — 


From  Pidsley, 

...     47 

Fi 

•om  Kilbarchan,     ... 

78 

,,     Houston, 

...     20 

„     the  Shore, 

...     f>2 

,,      Kilmacolm,     ... 

...     .32 

„     IJeitb, 

...        3 

,,      Lochwirinoch, 

...      .51 

„     other  Parishes, 

...      IG 

Kilbirnie, 

7 

In  1747  the  Secession  congregation  split  on  the  question  of  the  Burgess 
Oath,  when  Mr.  M'Cara  and  eight  of  the  Elders  cast  in  their  lot  with  the 
Burghers,  wdiile  five  Elders  joined  the  Anti-Burghers.  The  Anti-Burgher 
Synod  sent  Mr.  Thomson  of  Mearns  to  excommunicate  the  congregation 
and  minister  of  Burntshiels  Church,  but  this  gentleman  being  somewhat 
doubtful  of  the  welcome  he  miglit  receive,  contented  himst-If  with  crossing 
the  Cart  opposite  Lincleive  Farm,  four  miles  away,  and  there  reading  the 
nece.ssary  edict. 

Mr.  M'Cara  rivalled  Mr.  Warner  in  his  devotion  to  agricultural  pursuits, 
though  in  his  case  tliere  may  have  been  more  practice  and  le.ss  theory.  "He 
mounted  the  root  of  the  house  and  mended  the  thatch  ;  he  repaired  the 
fences  of  ids  little  farm  ;  he  quairied  stones  when  he  needed  them;  and 
he  coidd  be  seen  between  the  stilts  of  the  plough  drawing  a  straight 
furrow."  His  congregation,  thiid^ing  the  minister  was  neglecting  their 
interests  for  his  own,  locked  tlie  door  of  the  church,  and  for  nearly  a  year 
Mr.  M'Cara  had  to  preach   outside.       The  matter   was   appealed   to  the 

•Rev.    James    Inglis'    Account   of    IVest    U.P.    Church,    Johnstone;    cf.    iMatthew  Gemmiirs 

Lodiwinnocli. 


1.50  KILBAECHAN. 

Synod,  and  that  august  body  resolved  to  admonish  the  minister.      Rather 
than  submit  to  admonition,  he  resigned  his  charge  [1767]. 

After  a  vacancy  of  several  years,  the  Rev.  John  Lindsay  was 
settled  in  1773.  There  are  very  scanty  records  of  his  ministry.  A  free 
fight,  following  on  a  doctrinal  controversy,  occurred  in  1790,  and  the 
Kirk  Session  minute  book  was  torn  in  the  fray.  At  a  congregational 
meeting  in  1791  it  was  resolved  that  the  congregation  should  divide 
itself  into  three  sections,  one  with  the  minister  to  meet  afterwards  in 
Johnstone,  another  to  remain  at  Burntshiels,  and  the  third  to  form  a 
congregation  at  Lochwinnoch.  At  Burntshiels  the  Rev.  David  Stewart 
Wylie  was  ordained  19th  March,  1793.  He  did  not  remain  longer  than 
three  years,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  Brown  in  1797. 


Kilbarchan  Belief  C/nirch. 

During  the  legal  proceedings  which  preceded  the  settlement  of  Max- 
well, some  of  the  parishioners  of  Kilbarchan,  with  the  help  of  a  suggestion 
thrown  out  by  Mr.  Hutchison,  a  Relief  minister  in  Paisley,  conceived  the 
idea  of  obtaining  for  themselves  a  church,  the  minister  of  wliich  they 
would  be  able  to  choose  without  the  assistance  of  a  patron,  and  the  pews 
of  which  they  might  occupy  on  other  terms  than  those  which  obtained  in 
the  Parish  Church.  A  meeting  to  discuss  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings 
was  held  in  the  Star  Inn  or  Town  Hall,  now  No.  3  Shuttle  Street.^  Some 
favoured  the  erection  of  a  chapel  of  ease  in  connection  with  the  Church  of 
Scotland,  others  a  church  under  the  auspices  of  the  Synod  of  Relief. 
Committees  N^ere  appointed  to  make  inquiries  and  to  draw  up  reports, 
and  it  was  finally  resolved  that  the  church  to  be  erected  should  be  a 
Relief  Church.  Application  was  therefore  made  through  Mr.  Hutchison 
to  the  Relief  Presbytery  of  Edinburgh  for  recognition  and  support  for  the 
Kilbarchan  congregation,  and  a  Mr.  Bell  was  appointed  to  preach  at  Kil- 
barchan on  the  last  Sunday  in  May  and  a  jNIr.  Kirkwood  on  the  third 
Sunday  in  June,  178G.  A  tent  or  open  air  pulpit  was  prepared  by  William 
Caldwell,  the  wright,  and  erected  on  the  Knowe,  and  chairs  and  forms, 
stools  and  boards,  were  placed  around  it  for  the  accommodation  of  hearers. 
Mr.  Bell  preached  from  the  tent  on  the  appointed  Sunday  to  a  congrega- 
tion numbering  a  thousand  and  baptised  a  child  of  one  of  the  promoters. 
When  winter  approached  the  congregation  adjourned  to  a  barn  at  Town- 

'  Rev.  George  Alison's  Jccotint  of  the  U.P.  Congregation  of  Kilbarclian. 


KILBAECHAN   DURING   THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  151 

foot  belongino-  to  John  Barbour,  jun.,  one  of  the  elders  of  the  Parish 
Cliurch. 

In  the  summer  of  178G  arrangements  were  made  for  collecthio- 
iiiouey  to  build  a  church  on  a  site  which  belonged  to  one  James  Brown. 
The  days  of  bazaars  and  of  grants-in-aid  were  not  yet,  and  the  money  had 
to  be  raised  by  subscription.  No  fewer  than  125  persons  contributed  a 
pound  or  upwards.  The  largest  subscri  ption  was  one  of  £  1 5.  In  all,  a  sum 
of  £230  was  collected.  The  foundation  stone  was  laid  on  28th  March,  1787, 
and  though  the  church  was  occupied  during  the  winters  1787-8,  1788-9, 
it  was  not  really  finished  until  well  on  in  the  year  1789.  Walter  Cald- 
well, mason,  erected  the  walls  for  £124,  having,  however,  had  all  the 
materials  provided  for  him.  The  slates  cost  £35  delivered  at  Paisley, 
whence  they  were  carted  by  members  of  the  congregation  or  farmers  who 
sympathised  with  the  effort.  The  church  is  said  to  have  been  seated  for 
1200. 

The  first  minister — Mr.  John  Maclaren — was  ordained  in  the  open 
air  on  Tuesday,  13th  May,  1788.  "  His  prudence,  tact,  and  popular  gifts, 
secured  speedy  and  complete  success  to  the  young  congregation."  His 
stipend  at  first  was  £90,  but  at  the  end  of  his  ministry  £140.  Having 
no  manse,  he  built  for  himself  the  house  now  known  as  Meadside.  He 
died  on  2Gth  March,  1808,  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his  age  and  the  twen- 
tieth of  his  ministry  and  is  buried  by  the  wall  to  the  right  of  the  entrance 
gate,  where  a  mural  tablet  bears  witness  to  the  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held. 

The  Parish   Church  and  Manse. 

Of  the  Kilbarchan  public  buildings  erected  during  the  eighteenth 
century,  several  are  still  standing.  Through  being  repeatedly  re- 
paired and  renovated,  they  are  still  fit  for  use,  though  by  these 
changes  they  have  been  deprived  of  the  quaintness  which  other- 
wise would  iiave  made  them  interesting.  Old-world  glimpses  are  to  be 
found  in  the  documents  which   record  their  erection. 

When  Johnstone  came  to  Kilbarchan,  both  church  and  manse 
were,  in  the  language  of  ecclesiastical  law,  ruinmis ;  and  the  Pres- 
bytery had  to  extort  a  promise  from  the  heritors  to  repair  them 
by  threatening  not  to  ordain  the  Minister  until  they  were  re- 
paired. The  roof  of  the  manse  had  to  be  renewed,  and  the 
offices    rebuilt.       Of   the    church     roof    the    only    good    portions    were 


15-2  KILBARCHAN. 

those  over  tlie  Johnstone  aisle  and  "  the  aisle  which  Craigends  had  anew 
builded";  the  windows  were  bad,  and  the  pulpit  so  shattered  and  its 
boards  so  loose  that  it  was  ready  to  fall  down.  Wlien  the  Presbytery 
visited  Kilbarchan  in  October,  1702,  all  the  promised  repairs  had  been 
executed  with  the  exception  of  the  rickety  pulpit,  and  it  was  remitted  to 
the  L'lird  of  Johnstone  to  superintend  its  repair,  "  he  being  allowed  to 
collect  [from  transgressors]  the  mulcts  inflicted  by  law  .... 
and  use  the  proceeds  for  this  purpose."  With  an  ingenuity  which  would 
have  reflected  the  greatest  credit  on  the  heritors  if  it  did  not  also  reveal 
their  parsimony,  "the  brew-house  at  the  manse  was  so  contrived  that  it 
should  do  for  a  brew-house  and  a  kitchen  both." 

In  spite  of  these  repairs,  the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan  was  reported  twenty 
years  later  (June  20,  1722)  to  be  in  a  maimer  ruinous,  and  according  to 
the  Minister  there  was  nothing  for  It  but  to  have  it  rebuilt.  The  heritors 
at  first  thought  of  repairing  it  again  at  a  cost  of  £707  Scots — £59  Stg.  ; 
"  but  finding  upon  second  thoughts  that  it  will  be  but  clatclit  work  and 
the  Kii'k  within  should  still  lemain  in  a  confused  heap  and  that  the 
parishioners  could  not  be  iiccommodated  with  convenient  seats,  they  [the 
heritors]  agree  to  rebuild  it." 

The  sole  contractor  was  James  Baird,  mason,  Govan,  who  undertook 
to  take  down  the  old  church  to  the  foundation,  except  Craigends'  aisle, 
which  ;ippears  to  have  been  quite  recently  built,  and  to  erect  n.  new 
church  sixty  feet  long,  twenty-two  feet  wide  (measurements  within  walls), 
fourteen  feet  high,  with  walls  two  and  a-lialf  feet  thick.  When  finished, 
the  church  was  actually  six  feet  more  in  length.  The  specification  con- 
tinues thus : — 

There  shall  be  a  door  in  the  niiildie  of  the  gavils  laigh  on  the  gioiind,  each  5^  foot  in 
wideness  and  6^  foot  in  height,  and  another  door  in  the  soiuli  side  wall  near  the  pidpit, 
2J  foot  in  wideness  and  6  foot  iti  height  [the  Beltrees  door]  ;  the  said  doors  are  to  he 
made  up  of  sufficient  heal!  deall  hnng  with  crucks  and  bands,  and  having  bars,  locks,  keys, 
or  other  necessary  appertinents  ;  and  there  shall  be  two  windows  in  the  south  side  wall 
and  one  window  in  each  of  the  said  gavils,  which  four  windows  shall  each  of  them  be  4  foot 
in  breadth  and  7  foot  in  height  of  light,  and  a  handsome  fashionable  arched  top  with  a 
stone  pillar  through  the  middle  forked  at  the  top  :  and  likewise  there  shall  be  2  little 
square  windows  in  each  gavil  3  foot  high  and  2  foot  in  wideness  or  thereby,  each  of  the 
which  windows  shall  be  filled  with  glass  ;  and  further,  there  shall  be  a  loft  iii  each  end  of 
the  said  kirk  9  foot  high  or  therebj'  above  ground  and  It  foot  in  length  and  extending 
from  the  one  side  wall  to  the  other  in  breadth,  supported  with  a  sufficient  number  of  good 
and  sufficient  joists  with  a  competent  number  of  timber  pillars  and  under  props  to  support 
the  joists  ;  and  the  said  lofts  shall  be  floor'd  with  sufficient  deals,  and  each  of  the  said  lofts 
shall  have  two  sufficient  stone  stairs  within  the  kirk  3  foot  in  breadth  ;  and   the  said  kirk 


KILBAIiCHAX   DURING   THF:   EIGIITEliNTH   CENTUE\\  153 

shall  have  a  good  and  sufficient  roof,  the  cupples  whereof  shall  be  at  least  of  the  thickness 
of  6  inches  one  way  and  i  inches  another,  and  shall  be  set  at  2  foot  distance,  each  of  which 
cupples  shall  have  two  balks,  being  all  of  good  and  sufficient  wood  ;  and  the  whole  sarked, 
sclated,  ridged  and  pointed  sufficiently  with  a  bell  steeple  upon  the  west  end  (sic)  gavil  in 
fashion  like  that  at  Port-Glasgow  ;  and  the  side  walls  shall  have  a  sufficient  tabling  all 
along  the  top  thereof.  John  Baird  also  obliges  himself,  to  make  a  little  to-fall  with  a 
sclate  roof  and  convenient  entry  thereto  by  a  sufficient  hung  door  which  to-fall  is  to  be 
situate  upon  the  south  side  wall  at  the  end  of  the  old  isle  [sic)  for  an  accommodation  of  a 

burial  place  to  the  Laird  of  Johnstoun  ;  and  likewise  to  make  and  set  up 

ane  sufficient  new  pulpit  with  a  cover  and  other  necessary  appertinents,  together  with  a 
new  bench  4  feet  high  and  G  foot  in  wideness  and  8   foot   in  length  floored  with  deall 
Jiaird  ivas    not   to  supplif  breasts  to  lofts,   tirlies   to  windows,  desks  and 
forms. 

The  pi-ice  conti'acted  for  was  2000  merks  Scots,  £112  Stg.  ;  for  the 
extra  G  feet  of  buildiiio- and  the  ivj/riui/  of  the  windows  £9  in  addition 
was  allowed,  making  in  all,  including  .£'5  for  writers'  fees,  £12(5  Stg.  The 
contractor  was  allowed  all  the  materials  of  the  old  cluii-ch  excepting 
"breasts  of  lofts,  desks,  seats,  ;ind  furnis.  together  with  C'raigends'  isle 
and  the  furniture  thereof  The  parishioners  undertook  to  do  all  the 
carting  without  any  charge,  taking  the  timber,  slates,  iron,  lead  and 
glass  from  Greenock  or  Glasgow,  the  stone  from  Ful  wood's  or  Graigends' 
Quarry,  and  the  lime  from  Quarrelton  or  Gorsford.  Tn  the  event  of 
Baird's  workmen  (masons  or  wrights)  being  compelled  to  be  idle  through 
delay  on  the  part  of  the  parishioners  in  bringing  the  material  on  the 
ground,  the  heritors  were  to  pay  "  12s.  Scots  to  each  workman  for  ilk 
day  they  are  set  idle."  Baird  signed  the  agreement  in  Aj>ril,  1724,  and 
forthwith  set  to  work,  promising  to  have  the  chm-ch  ready  by  the 
beginning  of  October.  It  was,  however,  the  10th  November  on  which 
the  heritors  met  to  allocate  the  sittings. 

The  heritors  were  divided  into  two  classes,  each  class  entering  into  a 
separate  agreement.  The  principal  heritors  were, — Guninghame  of  Graig- 
ends,  the  Earl  of  Dnndonald  for  lianfurlj,  George  Houstoim  of  Jnhn- 
stoiui,  John  Na[)ier  of  Blackstone,  John  Lord  Sempill,  Patrick  Giawford 
of  Anchinames,  John  Walkinshaw  of  that  ilk  f)r  Selvielaiid,  Itoljert 
Sempill  (  r  Beltrees  for  Easwald  or  Third-part,  John  Snndgrass  of  Law, 
Thomas  Kennedy  of  Pinnal,  Bailie  James  (jlassford  of  Glochodrick, 
Alexander  Porterfield  of  Fulwood  for  Barrlands,  Mr.  James  Hamilton  for 
Boghouse.  Their  assessment  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  nierks  for  every 
£100  Scots  amounted  to  i'lOOO  Scots.  The  second  class  or  smaller 
heritors  were, — The  ]\Iinister  for  the  Poors'  Boydsvard,  William  Allason  of 


154  KILBAECHAN. 

Brandscroft,  John  Orr  and  Matthew  Henderson,  portioners  of  Watter- 
stoun  ;  Mr.  Alexander  Speir  of  Wardhouse,  James  Young  of  Weetlands, 
Hugh  Cochran  of  Chppings,  John  Barbour  of  Forehouse,  Alexander  Speir 
of  Buttineadow  and  part  of  Windyhill,  James  Wilson  of  Betwixt-the- 
Hills,  James  Craig  of  Monkland,  John  How  of  Damtoun  and  part  of  Law, 
Andrew  Clark  for  Greenside,  John  Hair  of  Borlands,  William  and  Andrew 
Bydin,  heritors  in  town  ;  Jean  Brown,  portioner  of  Windyliill.  Their 
assessment  at  the  same  rate,  twenty-five  merks  per  £100  Scots  of  valua- 
tion, yielded  five  hundred  merks  Scots.  Each  of  these  smaller  heritors 
got  in  the  allocation  of  sittings  "room  for  a  desk  measuring  with  its 
entry  seven  feet  in  length."  Then  the  principal  heritors  took  the  whole  of 
the  rest  of  the  church  and  divided  it  amongst  them,  giving,  however,  the  ' 
minister  a  pew  and  setting  apart  a  place  for  the  Communion  tables, 
at  which  on  other  than  Communion  Sundays  strangers  and  the  com- 
mon people  were  allowed  to  sit.  On  tlie  lintel  of  the  east  door  may  be 
read  the  legend  : — 

Reaedificatum  fuit  hoc  templum  sub  cura  M  Qui  huic 

OPERI   magnum  AUXILIUJI    DEDIT    ET    UALDE    Pt        I  PEOMOUIT 
ANNO  1724. 

i.e.,  "this  church  was  rebuilt  during  the  incumbency  of  Mr.  Pi(obert) 
J(ohnstoun)  who  gave  great  assistance  to  the  undertaking  and  vigorously 
promoted  it  in  the  year  1724." 

In  1730  the  manse,  14  Steeple  Street,  was  rebuilt,  and  over  the 
doorway  there  is  a  similar  inscription  : — 

Reaedificatum  fuit  haec  M 
domus        sub        cura   r     i 
Qui  huic  operi  magnu" 
auxilium  dedlt  ualde 

PliOMOUIT  ANNO 

1730. 

During  IVIr.  Warner's  ministry  very  little  was  spent  on  the  church — 
10s.  for  repair  of  the  roof  in  1743  and,  nearly  forty  years  after,  £78  Stg. 
for  repairing  the  churcli  and  the  gates.  That  clerical  agriculturist,  how- 
ever, got  his  stable,  barn  and  byre  repaired  in  1743  at  a  cost  of  £16,  when 
he  insisted  that  the  byre  should  have  a  window,  but  whether  it  was  that 
he  recognised  the  sanitary  value  of  sunlight  or  merely  for  the  convenience 
of  his    dairy-maid   it    is  difficult  to   say.       In    1751    the   old  manse,    14 


KILBARCHAX  DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  155 

Steeple  Street,  was  exchanged  for  the  flinnhouse  of  Over-Johiistone,  at 
the  same  time  as  the  glebe  was  excambed.  Not  until  twelve  years  after, 
however,  did  tlie  Presbytery  visit  Kilbarchan  to  approve  of  the  inanse 
and  offices  provided  on  the  new  site.  A  year  after  Maxwell's  induction, 
the  manse  and  offices  were  repaired  at  a  cost  of  £135,  and,  in  1791,  £(36 
was  spent  on  the  church  and  the  churchyard  wall.  In  the  following 
year  the  session-house  and  the  churcliyard  gate  were  erected  at  a  cost  of 
£53  10s. 

School!^  iihd  ScJioohriastc}-s. 

The  notices  of  educational  atiliirs  which  have  been  [ireserved  are 
meagre,  but  interesting.  In  1(')49  one  Joseph  Tenent  was  schoolmaster 
at  Kilbarchan.  It  was  he  who  read  the  edict  preliminary  to  John 
Stirling's  ordination  on  6th  December  "at  the  skailing  of  the  congrega- 
tion." Perhaps  Tenent,  like  StirHng,  refused  to  conform  to  the  new  order 
of  things,  or  perhaps  he  died  in  the  interval,  at  anyrate  in  1664  the  Pres- 
bytery (Episcopal)  "  ordaiues  the  minister  (David  Pierson)  to  make  inti- 
mation the  next  Sabbath  that  the  heritors  and  elders  of  the  paroch  meet 
for  the  providing  a  hundreth  pound  of  maintainance  for  a  sufficiently 
qualified  schoolmaster  to  ye  place,  and  that  they  stent  ymselves  for  the 
.same,  which  if  they  refuse  to  doe  the  minister  is  ordained  to  raise  letters 
of  horning  ag*  the  paroch  for  this  end." 

In  1682  (June  4th)  it  was  reported  that  James  Cowie,  schoolmaster  in 
Kilbarchan,  was  one  of  those  who  had  not  tested,  and  in  the  following  year 
lie  was  one  of  seven  disorderly  schoolmasters  whose  names  were  i-eported  to 
Bailie  Paterson.  Sheriff-Depute  of  Ptenfrew,  to  be  dealt  with  for  not  tak- 
ing the  Test.  In  a  return  prepared  by  Patrick  Simpson  "on  the  state  of 
schools  in  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley"  (2 Ist  October,  1696)  Kilbarchan  was 
in  the  very  worst  plight  ;  it  had  "no  school  master,  no  cellarie,"  and  it 
had  no  school  for  fifty  years  afterwards.  No  other  parish  in  the  Presby- 
tery was  in  so  bad  a  case.  James  Stirling,  his  heritors  and  elders  said, 
was  heard  sometimes  to  "  complaine  that  yr.  was  ....  not  a  settled 
encouragnit.  for  a  schoolm"'." 

So  far  from  encouraging  a  schoolmaster,  some  Kilbarchan  peojile 
grudged  him  his  extremely  modest  fee — a  merk(i.(^,  l.s.  l4jd.  Stg.)per  quarter 
per  scholar — for  in  1703  Mr.  William  Reid,  schoolmaster  of  Kilbarchan, 
liad  to  summon  John  Love,  flesher,  for  payment  of  8  merks  Scots  as  two 
years'  fees  due   for  the  education  of  his  slaughter  Janet.      Happily  the 


156  KILBARCHAX. 

sclioolmaster  got  decree  in  liis  favour  from  the  Sherilf  find  Bailie  Depute, 
Itobert  Senipill. 

During  1741-7  school  was  kept  at  Weitlands,  or  at  least  in  some  room 
or  outhouse  belonging-  to  James  Young,  for  the  use  of  which  the  Kirk 
Session,  not  the  heritors,  paid  a  rent  of  £7  Scots  (lis.  8d.  Stg.)  per 
annum.  In  1748  James  Alexander  charged  4.s.  as  rent  for  a  quarter,  and 
next  year  John  Danoch  was  paid  a  similar  sum  for  half  a  year's  rent.  In 
1751  Warner  complained  to  the  Presbytery  that  "  the  keeping  of  school 
in  spite  of  the  best  the  Session  can  do  is  subject  to  interrn2:)tions" — aris- 
ing probably  from  the  difficulty  of  finding  a  suitable  schoolhouse.  The 
heritors,  when  approached  by  tiie  Presbytery,  agreed  to  build  a  school  30 
feet  by  20  feet  outside  measurement  at  a  cost  of  £34  Stg.,  and  the 
parishioners  undertook  to  do  the  necessary  carting.  James  Milliken  gave 
a  free  site  and  induced  the  other  heritors  to  extend  their  building  scheme 
so  as  to  provide  a  meal  market  with  a  room  above  and  a  steeple.  In  his 
disposition  he  makes  the  minister  and  Kirk  Session  the  trustees  of  tlie.se 
subjects,  reserving  for  himself,  his  heirs  and  successors  "  the  room  above 
the  meal  market  with  free  Ish  and  entry  to  and  from  the  same."  The 
builder  is  believed  to  have  been  David  Kerr,  mason,  Kilbarchan. 

One  expense  led  to  another.  The  salary  of  the  schoolmaster,  Michael 
Garner,  had  hitherto  been  100  merks  Scots,  £6  Stg.,  paid  by  the  heritors, 
with  of  course  school  fees.  For  the  education  of  poor  scholars  the  Kirk 
Session  paid.  In  1769  the  schoolmaster  got  18s.  lO^d.  under  this  head. 
Michael  Garner  was  getting  old,  though  he  was  still  alive  in  1774,  and 
perhaps  his  qualifications  were  understood  to  be  scarcely  in  keeping  with 
the  brand  new  school  at  the  east  end  of  the  town;  at  anyrate  the  minister 
aspired  to  secure  the  services  of  one  "  well  qualified  to  give  instruction  in 
all  the  various  parts  of  learning,"  and  he  tried  to  get  the  heritors  to  offer  a 
new  schoolmaster  a  salary  of  £12  Sterling.  The  heritors  sua  movi'. 
demurred.  The  Minister  appealed  to  the  Presbyterv,  the  Gommissioners 
of  Supply,  the  Sherift' Depute,  and  in  the  end  gained  his  point.  This  was 
in  1762. 

Before  1764  William  Simson  was  appointed.  He  did  not  hold  office 
long — perhaps  he  was  not  found  qualified  to  teach  the  various  branches  of 
learning.  The  appointment  of  tiie  schoolmaster  of  Neilston  was  objected  to 
in  1776,  because  though  he  could  teach  English,  Writing  and  Arithmetic, 
he  did  not  know  Latin.  In  Novensber,  1764,  a  meeting  of  heritors  was 
called  from  the  pulpits  of  both  the  Parish  and  the  Secession  Churches  to 
consider  whether  Simson  was  to  be  continued  as  schoolmaster  or  not.     He 


KILDARCHAX    DUKIXG    THE   EIGHTEENTH   CEXTUKV.  157 

was  dismissed  or  rather  deposed,  and  the  vacancy  was  adv-ertised  in  the 
Glasgow  Journal  [Februaiy  22,  1765]  for  which  the  Kirk  Session  had  to 
pay  22s. 

Before  1770  Robert  Fergusux  had  become  schoohnaster  and  session 
clerk.  Kilbarchan,  however,  had  not  yet  learned  to  give  all  the 
encouragement  a  schoolmaster  seemed  to  require  ;  in  177G  John  Findlay 
was  appointed  to  keep  the  baptism  and  pr()clamati')n  books  instead  of 
Ferguson,  and  in  1778  the  session  is  found  discussing  the  interesting 
question  "  Whether  or  not  tliey  have  a  right  to  open  the  school  doors" — 
an  apple  of  discord  which  apparently  Ferguson  had  supplied. 

In  1779  Mr.  William  Maxson  is  schoolmaster  and  session  clerk. 

In  spite  of  little  sums,  from  tiuie  to  time  taken  from  the  Kirk  Session's 
funds,  spent  on  the  schoolhouse,  it  was  reported  in  1780  to  be  in  disrepair, 
to  such  an  extent  indeed  that  the  floor  in  wet  weather  was  mostly  covered 
with  water  ;  owing  to  the  increase  of  inhabitants  in  the  pari.sli  it  was  also 
said  to  be  too  small  to  accommodate  their  children.  The  heritors  produced 
two  plans — one  to  repair  the  school,  the  other  to  rebuild  the  greater  part 
of  it.  Tlie  Presbytery,  however,  would  have  nothing  to  do  even  with 
the  more  extensive  scheme  ;  and  in  1782  the  schoolhouse  had  to  be  taken 
down  by  order  of  the  Presbytery,  and  rebuilt  on  a  much  extended  scale — 
foity  feet  long,  eighteen  feet  broad — at  a  cost  of  £118. 

The  Secession  congregation  at  Burntshiels  seem  to  have  had  a  school 
of  their  own  : — 

Two  poor  scholars  have  their  school  wages  paid,  amounting  to  Is.  Gd.  a  quarter  each. 
.  .  .  I  suspect  Mr.  Hallam  the  teacher  was  rather  poorly  paid.  He  had  a  free  school- 
house,  £3  of  salary  annually  and  the  fees.  One  of  his  successors  was  a  shoemaker  named 
Porterfield.     He  made  and  mended  shoes  while  teaching.^ 

Long  alter  the  church  had  disappeared,  a  school  was  still  kept  at  Burnt- 
shiels at  which  several  people  not  yet  old  received  their  education. 


Procision  for  the   Poor. 

Had  John  Knox  had  his  way,  the  wealth  of  the  Church  over- 
thrown at  the  Reformation,  besides  providing  ample  endowments  for  the 
new  Church  and  for  secular  education,  would  have  been  available  also  for 
the  support  of  the  poor.     The  Reformer's  beneficeut  intentions  were,  how- 

1  Rev.  J^iiiies  Inglis'  Accoitnt  of  iPed  U.P.  Chun-h,  Johndone. 


158  KILBARCHAN. 

ever,  frustrated — the  clergy  got  a  mere  pittance,  education  was  left 
almost  destitute,  and  the  poor  had  for  their  support  only  that  of  which 
they  could  not  be  deprived,  the  proceeds  of  charity.  In  1579  the 
Scottish  Parliament  passed  an  Act  authorising  assessments  to  be  made 
for  poor  relief,  but  no  such  assessment  was  made  in  Kilbarchan 
until  1785;  for  over  two  hundred  years  those  who  could  not  provide 
themselves  with  food,  clothing  and  shelter,  had  to  look  to  the  Kirk  Session 
for  systematic  help,  though  doubtless  they  nlso  begged  from  private 
people  eloquently  and  successfully. 

Owing  to  the  disappearance  of  the  earlier  records  of  Kilbarchan  Kiik 
Session  and  of  the  Kirk  Treasurer's  book  after  1769,  we  can  follow  the 
Session's  proceedings  in  regard  to  this  important  duty  during  only  a 
short  period  [1742-1769]. 

William  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  and  Mr.  Andro  Hamil- 
ton, Minister  of  Kilbarchan,  were  present  at  a  meeting  of  about 
twenty  gentlemen  in  Paisley  [3rd  July,  1623],  at  which  it  was  resolved, 
"  that  the  needy  poor  of  each  parish  should  have  a  badge  or  taikin  so 
that  they  should  be  known — that  uncouth  beggars  be  driven  away  and 
anyone  relieving  them  be  fined."'  From  this  it  would  appear  that  in 
the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Kirk  Session's  duties 
relative  to  the  poor  were  to  distinguish  between  the  deserving  and  the 
undeserving  poor,  to  supply  the  former  class  with  a  token  or  leaden  disc'" 
which  was  simply  a  license  to  gain  a  livelihood  by  begging,  and  to  dis- 
courage the  waste  of  charity  on  those  who  were  unworthy.  The  way  of 
Cuninghame,  the  Diarist,  was  much  beset  with  beggars  ;  they  came  to  his 
owni  gate,  they  met  him  on  the  road  and  at  the  church  door,  especially 
when  he  went  to  Paisley  ;  some  had  a  testimonial,  presumably  from  the 
Session  or  Presbytery,  certifying  that  they  were  deserving;  some  had 
sores  or  defects  which  wei-e  a  passport  in  themselves  to  his  kindly  heart. 
If  we  were  to  consider  the  Poll  Tax  Rolls  as  a  complete  census,  we  might 
argue  that  Kilbarchan  had  few  very  poor,  though  according  to  Fletcher 
of  Saltoun's  statement  three  years  later,  1698,  one-fifth  of  the  whole 
population  of  Scotland  were  beggars.  Of  course  beggars  were  not  expected 
to  })ay  the  PoU-Tax,  and  hence  perhaps  the  omission  of  their  names.  In 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  care  of  the  poor  was  by  far  the 


'  Reg.  of  Privy  Cuuncil. 

-These  badges  were  still  in  use  at  Campbeltown  at  the  beginning  of  the  nint-teenth  century. 
Vide  Life  of  Dr.  Norman  Macltod,  Senior. 


KILBARCHAN    DURING   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY. 


mast  important  of  the  Kirk  Session's  practical  duties,  and  tiieir  great 
concern  was  to  get  enougli  money  to  do  their  duty  l)y  their  poor.  The 
following  is  an  abstract  of  their  accounts  for  the  first  and  last  years  of  the 
jDeriod  of  which  the  extant  records  give  us  information  : — 


Year  ending  31st  December,  1742. 


Year  ending  20th  October,  1709. 


Ekvenue. 

Revexue. 

47  Church  door  collections, 

..  £10 

7 

5 

50  Church  door  collections,      ...  £27 

9     5 

Use  of  the  mortcloth,    ... 

2 

0 

0 

Use  of  the  mortcloth,   ...         ...       T) 

4     0 

Interest  on  300  merks, ... 

1 

10 

0 

Grass  of  Churchyard,    ...          ...       0 

5     0 

Grass  of  Churchyard,    ... 

0 

3 

4 

Booking  money,             2 

6     0 

Timber  sold  oft'  Boyd's  yard, 

..       0 

10 

0 

Pew  rents  in  Church  and  arrears 

Part  payment  of  rent  of  Boy 

Is 

for  one  pew,              ...          ...        1 

IG     9 

yard  (Boggard), 

1 

10 

0 

Swarm  of  bees  found  in  church- 

£16 

0 

9 

yard  and  sold,            0 

£40 

9     6 
10     8 

EXPEXDITURK. 

EXPEXUITIIRE. 

1G9  separate  payments  amoiiL, 

St 

171  separate  payments  amongst 

60  poor  persons. 

..  £U 

12 

4 

5 

45  poor  persons,         £40 

15    7| 

Credit  balance,  ... 

..    £1 

8 

Debit  balance, £0 

4  10| 

Until  '21st  July,  1758,  the  Kirk  Session  accounts  were  kept  in  Scots 
money,  but  for  convenience  of  comparison  the  above  statement  for  1742  is 
given  in  sterling  money.  It  is  also  to  be  noticed  that  in  the  courseof  twenty- 
seven  years  the  purchasing  power  of  money  has  become  less  by  about  30 
per  cent.  : — In  1742,  15.s.  was  paid  for  the  board  of  a  child  for  a  year, 
in  1769,  £[  ;  in  1742  the  price  of  a  coffin  for  an  adult  was  4s.,  in  17G9,  5s  ; 
in  1742  the  grass  of  the  church  yard  was  let  for  3s.  4d,  in  17G'J  for  5s.  ; 
the   person   by   whom  the  Session  dealt  most  liberally  in   1742   received 

in    all   15s.,  paid   in  ten   instalments  varying  from  Is.   to   2s.,  J 

W in    17Gi)   got   over  £4,  paid  in   six  instalments;  his  eirciun- 

stances,  howevei-,  must  have  been  very  exceptional,  as  the  next  highest 
i-eceived  only  £2  14s. 

Some  of  the  entries  under  the  head  of  expenditure  are  interesting  as 
showing  the  almost  fatherly  care  bestowed  by  the  Kirk  Session  on  the 
poor.  As  has  been  already  indicated,  the  children  of  the  poor  were  edu- 
cated at  the  Kirk  Session's  expense — a  sum  varying  from  10s.  to  £1  was 
year  after  year  given  to  Michael  Garner  or  Robert  Ferguson  for  this  pur- 
pose— and   certainly   no  better  investment  could  have  been  made.      The 


0  09 

6 

1   00 

0 

1  00 

0 

1   04 

0 

0  08 

0 

0  08 

0 

160  KILBARCHAN. 

pool-  were  also  kept  supplied  with  books,  at  least  with  copies  of  the 
Scriptures  : — 

4th  May,   1744.— To  Alex' Stuart,  for  a  psam  book,  ...  ...       £0  06     0  So. 

16th  Dec,  174s.— To  Rob.  Speir  for  a  testament, 

13th  Ap.,  1750. — John  M'Knab  for  a  bible  to  hi.s  son, 

13th  Ap.,   1750. — Marg'  Thomson,  for  a  bible  to  her  son,  .. 

25th  Jan.,  1751. — To  a  bible  for  a  son  of  Agnes  Lyle's,      ... 

1 7th  May,  1 759.— To  a  New  Testament, 

17th  May,  1759. — To  Marg'  Houstoun's  Dau'  ane  New  Testament, 

While  medical  treatment  :it  times  was  provided  In  the  ordinary 
course,  e.g.  : — 

26th  July,  1754. — To  account  for  medicine  for  ye  poor,    ...  ...      £6  06  00  So. 

r2th  Dec,  1755. — To  2  quarters  wages  to  Mary  Wallace  for  W'" 
Cochran,  also  a  surgeon's  acco'  and  shoes  and 
hose,  and  that  from  May  day,  1755,  to  Hallow 
day,  1755,  ...  ...  ...  ....       16   16  00    „ 

the  presence  In  the  county  of  an  eminent  oculist  was,  at  least  on  one 
occasion,  taken  advantage  of,  on  behalf  of  a  poor  Killxuchan  man, — 

29th  Feb.,  1760. — The  Session  being  advised  to  make  some  trial  for  the  recovery  of 
J  .  .  .  W 's  sight  advanc'd  2  guineas  Stg.  that  he  might  make  use  of  the  oppor- 
tunity of  Chevalier  Taylor's  being  in  the  county. 

Ill  did  this  man  repay  the  Church  for  Its  generosity  towards  him.  Thirteen 
years  afterwards  he  was  found  guilty  of  going  about  the  county  debauch- 
ing maid  servants.  He  was  then  blind,  which  proves  that  the  Chevalier's 
treatment  was  not  successful  in  bis  case.  There  are  also  entries  which 
point  to  others  being  assisted  to  get  the  benefit  of  extra  skill  : — 

31st  Aug.,  1744. — For  couching  John  Thomson's  wife's  eyes,  ...£12  00  0  Sc. 

7th  Feb.,  1766. — Janet  Inglis  for  paying  physicians,  ...  ...        1     0  0  Stg. 

16th  June,  1769. — To   Mary  Stewart   for   defraying    the    expense  of 

cutting  off  her  husband's  leg,  ...  ...        10  0  Stg. 

Strangers  were  sometimes  assisted  by  the  Kirk  Session,  but  not  very 
liberally  :— 

1st  June,  1744. — .\  crown  (i.e.,  5d.  Stg.),  to  a  woman  going  to  the 
wells. 

9ih  May,  1746.— A  stranger,                  ...  ...              ...  ...  0  12  0  Sc. 

5th  June,  1752.— To  a  stranger,             ...  ...              ...  ...  0  12  0  Sc. 

19th  May,  1758.— To  a  sick  stranger,     ...  ...              ...  ...  0  1  4  Stg. 

]3ih    Oct.,  1761. — To  sailors  passing  wounded,  ...             ...  ...  0  2  6  Stg. 


KILBARCHAN   DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  IGl 

Though  in  the  eighteenth  century  there  were  no  collections  for  the 
General  Assembly's  Scliemes  and  Committees  as  now,  the  Church  of 
Scotland  was  very  much  alive  to  its  responsibilities  towards  its  sons  and 
daughters  in  distress,  and  also  to  its  duty  of  aiding  Protestant  brethren  and 
comnnuiities  in  straits  both  at  home  and  abroad.  General  collections  were 
made  also  Cur  the  purpose  of  can-ying  out  useful  and  important  public 
undertakings  such  as  the  building  of  bridges  and  the  making  of  harbours 
in  various  parts  of  the  country.  When  Alexander  Cochrane  in  Kilbar- 
chan  suffered  considerable  loss  by  fire,  a  collection  was  made  for  him  in 
all  the  churches  of  the  Presbytery  [Oct.  21,  1707];  and  James 
M'Kennnie  and  Hugh  Clark  of  Kilbarchan  were  furnished  with  testi- 
monials from  the  Presbytery  recommending  them  to  the  Kirk  Sessions 
and  to  charitably  disposed  persons  generally,  as  deserving  of  charity  [1st 
June,  1709:  28th  April,  173G].  Collections  were  made  in  the  churches 
to  redeem  Mathew  Rodger  and  Dowal  from  slavery  in  Algiers,  Ixit  before 
the  money  could  be  sent  the  poor  fellows  were  reported  to  be  dearl,  and 
so  the  collection  was  in  the  one  case  divided  between  the  Christian  com- 
munities of  Norriston  and  Hilderburghhau,sen,  and  in  the  other  was 
given  to  Mr.  Robison,  Minister  of  Clyn,  who  must  have  been  in  straits 
though  not  in  slavery.  In  1733  there  was  a  collection  for  those  who  had 
suffered  from  a  great  fire  in  Paisley,  and  in  1748  Kilbai'chan  contributed 
"  .£56  10s.  Scots  for  Hamilton's  calamity  of  fire." 

For  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  Kilbarchan  gave  in  1709 
£21  Scots,  and  again  in  171  1  tlie  same  amount  :  and  "  for  the  Highlands  " 
in  1762,  £4  10s.  Stg.,  and  for  a  Highland  student  in  1757,  £36  Scots. 
The  contribution  of  Kilbarchan  for  the  Bridge  at  Lochwinnocb  in  1748 
was  £6  06  00  Sc,  and  in  1733  for  Thirdpart  Bridge  £2  08  00  Sc.  The 
Surgeons'  Hospital  in  Edinburgh  was  collected  for  in  1737  ;  tliere  were 
also  subscriptions  for  a  new  erection  at  Liviston  (Livingstone),  to  rebuild 
the  meeting-house  at  Miserich  in  the  Duchy  of  Juliers  wliich  had  been 
burnt  ;  for  Protestant  communities  in  Lithuania,  at  Belfast,  Carrick- 
fergus,  and  New  York  ;  for  bridges  at  Ancrum  and  Dalrymple,  and  for 
the  harbour  of  Arbroath.  When  the  General  Assembly's  letter  enjoining 
a  collection  for  the  last-mentioned  jJm-pose  was  read  in  the  Presbytery, 
one  of  the  brethren  meekly  remarked  that  of  late  "  there  had  been  a 
throng  of  collections." 

Even  more  interesting  than  the  various  objects  on  which  the  Session 
spent  money,  are  the  several  sources  from  which  revenue  was  obtained  and 
the  methods  of  finance  which  were  employed. 


1G2  KILBAKCHAN. 

1.  The  Church  Plate  yielded  naturally  the  steadiest  and  surest 
stream  of  revenue.  The  average  collection  in  1742  was  4s.  5d.  Stg.,  and 
in  1769,  lis.  The  hest  collections  were  those  taken  during  the  com- 
munion seasons.  On  Communion  Sunday,  June  1743,  £i  lis.  Stg.  was 
collected,  and  the  collections  on  the  Fast  day,  the  Saturday  and  the  Mon- 
day, amounted  to  £2  lis.  Stg.,  i.e.,  in  all  for  the  Communion  of  1743, 
£7  2s.     The  total  in  1769  on  similar  occasions  was  £9  5s. 

The  Kilbarchan  people  were  no  better  than  their  neighbours  in  the 
matter  of  putting  bad  money  into  the  church  plate,  hence  the  following 
entries  : — 

10th  June,  1743. — For  2  pounds  and  |  pound  of  bad  brass,               ...  £02  18  0  Se. 

24th  May,  1745.— For  3  pounds  weight  of  bad  brass,         ...             ...  00  19  6    „ 

20th  Jan.,  1749. — James  Young  gave  in  account  of  bad  money  con- 
verted into  the  box,             ...             ...             ...  03  16  0    ,, 

2.  In  the  Eighteenth  Century  the  Kirk  Session  did  a  considerable 
banking  business,  not  alvpays  profitably  however.  The  capital  with  which 
they  traded  was  not  so  much  accumulations  of  income  over  expenditure, 
but  rather  legacies  left  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  In  James 
Stirling's  time  they  had  given  in  lo;in  to  the  Laird  of  Johnstoun  1000 
merks  of  the  poors'  money  on  the  security  of  the  lands  of  Ci-aigrooden. 
Tiie  tenant,  William  Hair,  declined  to  pay  his  rent  to  the  Kirk  Session 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  no  assurance  but  that  he  might  have  to  pay  it 
a  second  time  to  the  laird  himself  or  to  some  other  mortgagee.  The 
minister,  Robert  Johnstoun,  took  the  matter  in  hand  and  conducted  the 
negotiations  to  a  favourable  issue  [21st  Oct.,  1702,  and  foil.].  In  1742 
the  Kirk  Session  were  deriving  revenue  from  a  sum  of  300  merks  lent  out, 
and  from  a  little  holding,  Boydsyard,  part  of  which  they  owned.  Legacies 
came  dropping  in  from  time  to  time,  e.g., — 

Major  James  Milliken,  who  died  in  1741,  bequeathed  £10  Stg.  to  the 
Kirk  Session,  which  the  minister  borrowed  and  paid  up  in  instalments 
from  time  to  time,  the  principal  with  the  interest  at  five  per  cent.,  also 

1st  Mar.,  1751. — Umphray  Barbour's  legacy,     ...              ...              ...  50  merks  Sc. 

21st  Ap.,  1758. — Lady  Craigends' Legacy,         ...             ...             ...  £33  06  8  „ 

21st  July,  1758. — William  Semple  in  Middletoun  for  the  benefit  of 

the  poor,             ...             ...             ...             ...  20  00  0  „ 

13th  Jan.,  1764. — Given  to  the  bo.x  of  a  legacy  left  by   William 

Stinson  for  the  poor,         ...             ...             ...  2  15  7  Stg. 

4th  Ap.,  1771.— William  Stewart,  Merchant,  Paisley,       ...             ...  20     0  0  „ 

5th  Feb.,  1772.— John  Aird,  Taylor  in  Kilb",    ...             ...             ...  6     0  0  „ 


KILBAECHAN   DURING  THE  EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  Ifi3 

The  history  of  the  Kirk  Session's  ownership  and  administration  of 
Boydayard,  "The  Boggard,"  is  interesting.  It  was  a  small  farm  beside 
the  Kilbarchan  Burn  after  it  crosses  the  road  near  Easwald  Bank.  In 
1690  it  is  described  as  a  ten  shilling  land  of  old  extent.  Half  of  it  was 
then  owned  by  two  sisters,  Elizabeth  and  Jean  Dunlop,  and  half  was  held 
in  trust  for  the  poor  of  the  parish  by  the  Kirk  Session.  The  superior  was 
Craigends,  to  whom  each  of  the  vassals  paid  4s.  7d.  as  feu-duty.  In  1748 
the  Kirk  Session  paid  9s.  2d.  under  this  head,  but  probably  this  is  a  pay- 
ment for  two  years.  From  1741  onwards  one  John  Marshall  was  tenant 
of  the  poors'  Boydsyard — a  man  who  was  habitually  in  arrears  with  his 
rent.  The  rent  vained  from  £3  to  £3  10s.  Stg.,  from  which  we  may  con- 
jecture that  the  extent  of  the  Kirk  Session's  part  was  from  ten  to  fifteen 
acres.  In  1742-3  Mai'shall  rebuilt  or  i-epaired  Boydsyard  House  and  was 
allowed  about  £2  Stg.  towards  the  expense.  In  1750  John  Speir,  writer, 
Kilbarchan,  factor  for  James  Milliken,  proposed  to  the  Kirk  Session  to 
exchange  the  southmost  mailing  of  the  Tandlehills  for  Boydsyard,  as 
Milliken,  having  pui'chased  the  lands  of  Barr  in  addition  to  Johnstone, 
wished  to  enclose  his  possessions  and  Boydsyard  lay  like  a  gusset  between 
his  two  properties.  It  was  found  impossible,  however,  to  make  a  bargain 
on  the  basis  of  an  excambion  and  Milliken  offered  to  purchase  for  £120. 
This  offer  was  accepted,  and  John  Barbour,  merchant,  Kilbarchan,  Kirk 
Treasurer,  and  James  Young  of  Weitlands  were  appointed  on  behalf  of  the 
Session  to  transact  and  finish  the  bargain  and  were  authorised  "to  lift  the 
money  or  take  bond  fur  it  in  name  of  the  Kiik  Session  and  for  behoof  of 
the  poor."  Milliken  gave  a  bond  and  he  and  his  trustees  continued  pay- 
ing intei'est  at  five  per  cent,  though  he  is  often  as  long  as  four  years  in 
arrears,  until  the  end  of  1783  when  the  session  agreed  "to  uplift  £60 
Stg.  of  the  bond  ....  as  they  found  this  measure  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  support  of  tlieir  poor,  the  number  of  whom  have  greatly 
increased  of  late."  Accordingly  on  the  3rd  December,  John  Erskine  and 
John  Birkmyre  lifted  from  Mr.  Snodgrass,  factor  for  the  Tru.'^tees  of 
Milliken,  £60  Stg.  of  the  principal  of  Milliken's  bond  with  £6  of  interest 
due  at  Martinmas,  1783. 

The  Kirk  Session,  how^ever,  got  further  into  difiiculties  and  were 
obliged  to  hand  over  their  responsibility  of  providing  for  the  poor  to,  what 
may  be  called  the  first  Parochial  Board  [1st  July,  1785].  The  remaining 
part  of  the  price  of  Boydsyard  was  paid  in  March,  1790,  and  was  lent  to 
Pvobert  Rodger,  who  from   time  to  time  made  repayments,  not  to  the 


164  KILBARCHAX. 

Kirk  Session,  liowevei-,  but  to  the  Parochial  Board  [7th  Nov.,  1794,  6th 
Nov.,  1795]. 

3.  A  third  source  of  revenue  was  the  charye  levied  for  the  use  of  the 
mortcloths.  In  1742  they  were  surely  not  of  velvet,  else  we  should 
scarcely  have  the  following  enti'y  : — 

27th  Oct.,  1742. — For  washing  of  the  mortcloaths,  ...  ...       £1   04     0  Sc. 

Though  these  appurtenances  yielded  income,  yet  their  upkeep  led  to  con- 
siderable expense : — 

27th  Oct.,  17r)2. — To  John  Boyd  for  mending  the  big  one  and  mak- 
ing the  little  mortcloath,...  ...  ...       £1   Ifj  00  Sc. 

The  same  day  p.ayed  James  Millar,  Sarge  and  threed  for  mend- 
ing the  mortcloaths,  ...  ...  ...  5  14  00    „ 

27th  Aug.,  1752. — John  Barbour  payed  Messrs.  Short  Rig  &  Allison, 
merchants  in  Glasgow,  for  9  yards  of  mohare 
fringes  at  5s.  6d.  per  yd.,  ...  ...         2     9     G  Stg. 

To  3  yards  black  plnsh  at  6.5.,  ...  ...         0  18     0     „ 

5th  Jan.,    175.3. — Payed  James  Millar  for  lineing  to  the  mortcloath,  5  14     6  Sc. 

6th  Dec,  1751. — Paid  for  a  mortcloath  wallet  to  James  Millar,      ...         3  12     0    ,, 

New  mortcloths  were  bought  in  1761,  1762,  1770;  and  on  18th  April, 
1772,  the  committee  appointed  by  the  Session  for  valuing  the  Se.ssion's 
mortcloths  met,  and  having  called  for  the  same,  they,  with  the  assistance 
of  Jolur  Hair  and  John  Stevenson,  Taylors,  "did  set  a  price  upon  each  of 
them,"  viz.  : — 

The  largest  velvet  mortcloth,  No.  1,  was  valued  at  £9     0 
The  next  do..  No.  2.        ,,  ,,        5  15 

The  best  hair  plush  one,  No.  3,         „  „        3     0 

The  worst      do.         do..  No.  4,         ,,  ,,        0     4 

The  smallest  do.,  for  children.  No   5,         .,  ,,        0     0 

.     .     .     The  above  tradesmen  were  also  of  opinion  that  the  best  velvet  mortcloth  has 
been  much  hurt  by  ill  usage. 

4.  The  Session's  funds  were  hel^jed  by  certain  fines  or  confiscations 
levied  from  those  whose  conduct  was  not  socially  regular. 

Parties  about  to  get  married  were  expected  to  consign  a  small  sum  of 
money  into  the  hands  of  the  Kirk  Session  before  the  proclamation  of 
banns,  which  was  generally  returned  if  the  marriage  took  place,  but  which 
might  be  forfeited  if  the  sweethearting  had  not  been  of  a  virtuous 
character  : — 


0     ... 

lent  at  4s.  6d. 

0    ... 

„     3s.  6d. 

0    ... 

„     23.  6d. 

0     ... 

,.     Is. 

0    ... 

„     Is. 

KILBAECHAX   DURING  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  165 

11th   Nov.,    174:8, — The   Session,   in   consideration  y'  J  .  .  .  .    M married  the 

woman,  gave  bim  batk  his  consignation  money. 

20th  August,  175G. — Robert  Honeyman  claimed  and  obtained  piyment  of  his  consigna- 
tion money. 

Not  infrequently  tlie  pledge  was  forfeited  and  consignation  money  thus 
became  confiscate  money  : — 

4th  May,  174-1.— Given  of  conKscate  money  to  James  Young  (the  Kirk  Treasurer)  the 
sum  of  one  pound  five  shillings  Stg. 

31st  Jan.,  I745. — Given  of  confiscate  money  to  James  Young  the  sum  of  nine  pounds 
Scots. 

21st  Dec,  17.j1. — Given  in  this  day  to  the  Session  twenty-seven  shill:  Ster.  money  of 
confiscations  by  Mich.  Garner. 

20ih  July,  1753. — Given  in  by  Mich.  Garner  of  confiscate  money,  £7  10s.  Sc. 

Sometimes  the  wealtliy  on  the  occasion  of  their  marriage  made  a  small 
contribution  to  the  poors'  ftuid  which  might  be  looked  upon  as  consigna- 
tion money  voluntarily  surrendered  :  wlieii  Porterfield  of  that  Ilk  married 
Christina  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  in  1747  he  gave  half  a  guinea  to  the 
poor. 

How  consignation  money  came  to  be  changed  into  booking  money  or 
proclamation  money  we  learn  from  the  following-  entry  : — 

4th  Nov.,  17.')3. — Upon  a  report  fiom  IMichael  Garner,  Sess.  Clerk,  that  at  the  booking 
of  parties  for  marriage  he  found  it  diflicult  to  prevail  upon  the  party  to  lay  down  the 
usuall  consignation  money  and  that  he  believed  it  could  not  be  made  more  etfectuall  without 
the  interposition  of  a  judge.  The  Session  agreed  for  a  time  to  accept  of  eighteen  pence  to 
be  mortify'd  to  the  poor  in  lieu  thereof  and  allows  the  Session  Clerk  sixpence  of  the  same 
in  augmentation  of  his  perquisites. 

Iri-egular  marriages,  which  were,  of  cour.se,  evasions  of,  or  attempts  to 
evade,  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  were  made  to  contribute  revenue.  The 
parties  irregularly  married  appeared  before  the  Session  producing  a  cer- 
tificate of  their  marriage,  or  bringing  witnesses  to  prove  that  they  had 
publicly  acknowledged  each  other  as  husband  and  wife.  The  certificate 
was  carefully  scrutinised,  or  the  witnesses  cross-examined  ;  parties  were 
made  to  promise  to  adhere  to  one  another  as  husband  and  wife,  and 
were  rebuked  before  the  Session.  A  narrative  of  the  facts  was  entered 
in  the  Session's  minutes,  which  amounted  to  registration,  an  extract 
was  given,  and  a  fine  was  exacted. 

2Sth  January,  1743. — The  Session  required  of  W  .  .    .  M and  E L , 

irregularly  married,  that  they  sh'  pay  some  what  to  the  poor  or  run  their  hazard  of  a  suit 


166  KILBARCHAK. 

tefore  the  Justices  of  the  Peace.  Whereupon  they  gave  15s.  stg.,  which  the  Session 
accepted  and  dismissed  them. 

Ill  1778,  17s.  was  the  sum  demanded  as  a  fine  and  in  lieu  of  the  pro- 
clamation fee  which  in  such  a  case  was  not  paid  ;  but  a  professional  man 
who  chose  to  get  married  hurriedly  and  irregularly  in  1760  had  to  p;iy 
two  guineas  for  the  luxury. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century  [I7th  May,  1797]  those  who  wished 
the  privilege  of  having  their  children  baptised  privately,  i.e.,  in  their 
own  homes,  had  to  pay  5s.,  which  the  minister  disbursed  to  needy 
persons. 

5.  The  poors'  fund  was  also  helped  from  various  other  sources  which 
cannot  very  well  be  classified,  e.g.,  the  rent  for  the  right  of  grazing  cattle 
in  the  churchyard.  This  legally  belonged  to  the  minister,  but  it  seems 
sometimes  to  have  been  given  as  a  perquisite  perhaps  to  the  beadle. 

25th  Ju.,  1756.— To  John  Scot  with  the  Kirk  yard  grass,  ...      £104     0  Sc. 

A  swarm  of  bees  was  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  In  1769. 

3rd  Dec,  1762. — Given  in  by  a  delinquite  (.'/c),                 ...              ...  .£0     6     0  Stg. 

3rd  Aug.,  1764.— A  Fine,      ...             ...             ...             ...             ...  1     0     0  Stg. 

4th   Ap.,    1766. — By  Mr.  Warner  for  parish  fines  for  not  taking  out 

licences,                ...              ...              ...              ...  0116  Stg. 

22nd  Jy.,  1766. — Fines  from  Mr.  Barclay  by  decreets,  March  1764 

and  August  1765,               ...             ...             ...  2  15     0  Stg. 

6.  There  were  also  rents  from  some  pews  which  had  been  put  up  at 
the  expense  of  the  Kirk  Session,  but, 

28th  May,  1765. — The  Session  appoint  a  committee  [to  examine  their  books  and 
accounts]  and  to  keep  distinct  that  which  arises  from  the  sett  of  the  seats  in  the  area  of  the 
kirk. 

The  destination  of  pew  rents  was  therefore  not  the  poors'  fund,  but  a 
fund  for  the  repair  of  the  fabric. 

IGth  Feby.,  1753. —  .  .  .  the  Session  resolves,  that  two  pews  be  put  up  on  each 
end  of  said  area  at  the  expense  of  the  Session  ....  and  that  the  persons  who  have 
bespoke  these  seats  should  be  preferred  for  the  first  year  at  a  crown  the  seat  with  the 
interest  of  the  money  that  shall  be  expended  in  the  erecting  of  them  ...  if  the  seats 
be  judged  too  chape  the  same  shall  be  exposed  to  public  roup  for  the  succeeding  years ;  it 
teing  always  understood  that  the  said  seats  shall  be  removed  at  the  time  of  a  sacrament. 

20th  Jy.,  1753. — Payed  Patrick  Barr  for  the  four  new  seats  in  the 

area  of  the  church,  ...  ...  ...      £22  08  00  Sc. 


KILBARCHAX  DURING  THE   EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY.  1G7 

The  pews  were  put  up  to  auction,  whicli  was  duly  advertised  Ijy  tuclc  of 
drum, — 

25th  Ju.,  1756, — Alex'  Millar  for  crjing  the  seats  in  ye  area,        ...        £0  12  00  Sc. 
—John  Orr  for  the  drum,  ...  ...  ...  0     0  00  Sc. 

These  pews  brouglit  in  an  income  of  .£'2  9s.  Gd.  Stg.  in  1755,  and  nearly 
£A  in  1769.  That  pews  were  scarce  is  evident  from  five  men  going  .shares 
in  one  pew  in  1774.  The  occupants  of  these  pews  were  frequently  in 
arrears  with  their  rents. 


Provision  for  the  Poor  after  1785. 

In  1783  the  Kirk  Session  had  to  make  inroads  on  their  capital  for 
the  purpose  of  discharging  their  liabilities  to  the  poor.  They  ascribed  the 
unpleasant  predicament  in  which  they  found  themselves  to  the  existence  of 
the  Burntshiels  Secession  Church,  which  had  had  the  effect  of  reducing 
their  income  from  the  church  plate,  and  also  to  a  large  increase  in  the 
number  of  the  poor.  It  was  due  also,  though  the  Kirk  Session  do  not  say 
so,  to  the  fact  that  the  heritors  had  been  throwing  as  much  of  the  burden 
of  maintaining  church,  churchyard  walls,  and  schoolhouse,  as  they  possibly 
could,  upon  the  Session. 

Glasgow  had  adopted  a  tax  for  the  poor  in  1770,  Paisley  and 
Greenock  in  1783.  A  meeting  of  Kilbarchan  heritors  and  others  was  held 
in  the  Parish  Church,  1st  July,  1785,  to  devise  a  scheme  of  poor  relief; 
and  a  month  later,  five  heritors,  five  householders,  five  tenants  (farmers) 
were  appointed  to  meet  with  the  Kirk  Session  to  consider  the  poor  cases 
needing  help,  to  take  account  of  the  funds  at  their  disposal,  and  to  allocate 
the  sum  necessary  amongst  heritors,  householders  and  tenants.  They  were 
instructed  to  impose  the  tax  in  sucli  a  way  that  the  contribution  would  be 
as  equitable  and  easy  as  possible,  and  with  this  end  in  view  they  were  to 
take  into  account  the  property  of  each  in  the  parish,  his  trade,  his  means, 
his  substance,  and  any  other  relevant  circumstance.  To  the  best  of  their 
judgment  the  sum  required  for  the  year  current  was  £1 12.  They  imposed 
an  assessment  on  the  heritors  of  3d.  per  £  Scots  of  their  valuation  ;  this 
yielded  £78  9s.  3fd.,  the  valued  rent  of  the  parish  being  £6277  Sc.  From 
the  Kirk  Session  they  expected  £12  ;  Burntshiels  Session  gave,  in  1786, 
9s.  and  Mr.  Lindsay,  the  minister,  10s.  ;  and  householders  and  tenant 
farmers,  on  what  basis  we  do  not  know,  were  to  contribute  £21  10s. 


16S  KILBARCHAX. 

Tlie  sum  required  to  meet  the  poors'  necessities  showed  year  by  year 
a  very  decided  tendency  to  increase,  so  that  in  1799  the  heritors'  rate  had 
to  be  increased  to  4d.  Stg.  per  £1  Sc,  and  each  householder  had  to  give 
2s.  In  178G-7  the  Board  made  a  new  departure — partly,  no  doubt,  to 
meet  a  felt  want  and  partly  to  add  to  their  funds — in  providing  "a 
machine  for  conveying  the  dead  to  the  place  of  interment,  and  a  house  to 
lodge  it  in."  A  sum  of  £17  is  entered  in  the  record  of  19th  January, 
1787,  as  the  cost  of  this  "  machine,"  though  perhaps  the  cost  of  the  house 
also  is  included. 


Tl}e   Cormmmion. 

An  account  of  Kilbarchan  in  the  eighteenth  century  -would  be  alto- 
gether incomplete  without  some  reference  to  a  great  event  in  the  ecclesias- 
tical year — an  event  which  was  of  social  importance  also--the  Comuuuiion. 
In  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  held  once  a  year,  usually  in  June,  but 
sometimes  in  May.  There  were  years  in  which  it  was  omitted  altogether, 
usually  on  the  groimd  that  the  minister  was  ailing  and  would  fain  avoid 
the  excitement  it  caused  him,  to  the  great  loss  of  the  Session's  funds. 

The  following  is  a  complete  account  of  a  Communion  as  recorded  in 
the  Kirk  Session's  minutes  : — 

Gth  May,  17-lS. — It  was  agreed  that  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  should  be  ad- 
ministered in  this  congregation  the  29th  of  May 

20th  May,  1748. — This  day  the  Session  met  for  prayer  and  private  censures,  prayed 
this  day  James  Young  and  Robert  White,  William  Seraple  ended  with  prayer.  The  fast  is 
appointed  to  be  on  Thursday,  the  order  for  collecting  is  as  follows  : — 

The  preparation  Sabbath  [22nd  May]  Robert  White  and  Jo"  Kelso. 
The  Fast  day  [2Gth     „    ]  Alex'  Speir  and  John  Orr. 

The  Saturday  [28th     „     ]  W"'  Semple  and  W'"  Reid. 

The  Sabbath  [29th     „     ]  W'"  Erskine  and  Hugh  Semple. 

The  Monday,  [30th     ,.     ]  John  Barbour  and  James  Young. 

James  Craig  and  John  Semple  are  to  be  spoken  to  for  collecting  at  the  tent. 

10th  June,  17-18. — The  collections  were  counted. 
Prep.  Sabb.,  Robert  White, 
Fast  Day,  John  Orr, 
Saturday, 
Com.  Sabbath, 
Monday, 
Thanksgiving  Sabb., 


£09   00 

0  So. 

= 

£0  15 

0  Stg. 

08  00 

0  „ 

= 

0  13 

i       :, 

09  00 

0  „ 

= 

0  15 

0  „ 

50  00 

0  „ 

= 

4  3 

i    -, 

17  00 

0  „ 

= 

1  9 

2 

16  18 

0  „ 

= 

1  8 

2  „ 

KILBARCHAN    DURING   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  169 

Some  of  the  terms  and  proceedings  mentioned  above  call  for  explanation. 
"  Privy  censure.s "  may  be  regarded  as  a  religious  spring  cleaning,  in 
which  the  Kirk  Session  turned  its  inquisitorial  energies  upon  itself; 
member  after  member  went  out  in  turn,  as  in  some  parlour  games,  and 
the  rest  discussed  his  character  and  talked  over  any  report  that  had  been 
in  circulation  about  him  for  the  past  year.  The  minister  was  exempted 
because  he  underwent  a  similar  experience  once  a  year  at  the  hands,  or 
rather  at  the  tongues,  of  his  ecclesiastical  peers  in  the  Presbytery.  In 
tlie  whole  history  of  Kilbarchan  Kirk  Session  as  far  as  it  has  been  pre- 
served, there  was  only  one  scandal^ an  old  man  to  whom  had  been  en- 
trusted some  money  to  give  to  the  poor,  had  not  paid  it  at  once.  He  w\is 
himself  very  poor  and  may  in  an  evil  hour  have  been  tempted  to  appro- 
priate it.  Anyhow,  there  appear  to  have  been  extenuating  circumstances, 
for  the  Session  dealt  gently  with  him. 

At  the  meetings  for  privy  censures,  the  elders  were  in  the  habit  of 
exercising  their  gifts  in  praj^er  at  the  opening  and  closing  of  the 
sederunts. 

The  men  appointed  to  take  the  collections  at  the  various  services 
w^ere  not  all  elders,  but  when  not  elders  they  were  men  eligible  for  the 
eldership  ;  possibly  it  was  expected  that  tasting  the  sweets  of  office  on 
the  occasion  of  the  sacrament,  they  would  be  all  the  readier  to  become 
elders  when  asked. 

Keference  is  made  to  collecting  at  the   tent.     The   tent  was  not  a 
canvas  erection  which  would  accommodate  a  congregation,  but  merely  an 
open-air  pulpit,  as  has  been  already  explained.     In  some  countr}'  church- 
yards the  tent  ready  for  the  communion  time  might  have  been  seen  until 
within  recent  years.      The  Kilbarchan  tent,  though  its   component   parts 
were  laid  aside  and  carefully  preserved,  was  not  kept  quite  ready  for  use, 
but  was  put  up  when  it  was  needed  and  then  taken  down  again.     This 
may  indicate  that  the  open-air  preaching  at  Kilbarchan  did  not  take 
place  in  the  churchyard  but  in  some  field  near. 
31st  Aug.,  1714. — To  putting  up  the  tent,     ... 
2nd  Aug.,  1745. — For  ale  and  nails, 
5th    Ju.,   1752. — To  nails  and    setting    up    the  tent  and  other 

charges, 
20th   Ju.,   1753. — To  Rob.  Whitehill  for  putting  up  of  the  tent 

and  nails, 
25th    Ju.,   1750.— To  a  tent  cloath, 
21st    Jy.,   1758. — To  covering  the  tent  with  deals, 
6th   Ju.,   1760. — Charges  in  setting  up  table  and  removing  the 
tent, 

X 


£0  07 
0  07 

0     So. 

6     So. 

0  08 

0     So. 

t 

0  10 
3  03 

1  4 

0     Sc. 
00     Sc. 

n  stg. 

e 

0     1 

0    Stg. 

170  KILBARCHAN. 

The  Kirk  Session  renewed  their  supply  of  tokens  much  more  fre- 
quently than  might  have  been  expected  to  be  necessary  : — 

14th  Ju.,  1751.— For  tokens  and  a  stamp,    ...               ...  ...  £6  00  00  Sc. 

25th  Ju.,  1756. — John  Ewing  for  tokens,  casting,  etc.,  ...  1  16  00  Sc. 

21st  Jy.,  1758.— Pay'd  for  tokens,                  ...             ...  ...  0  6     3  Stg. 

12th  Jy.,  1765. — The  belman  and  three  years'  additional  tokens,  0  7     6  Stg. 

The  Parish  Church  communions  were,  however,  it  is  understood,  not  to  be 
compared  in  magnitude  and  importance  with  those  held  at  the  Burnt- 
shiels  Church  : — 

"1  find  on  one  occasion  1400  tokens  provided  at  a  shilling  a  hundred 

At  a  later  period  under  Mr.  Lindsay's  ministry,  I  find  700  tokens  given  away 

The  communions  at  the  Brenchall  were  famous  until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury ;  but  latterly  they  were  attended  by  undevout  persons,  disorders  ensued,  and  even- 
tually they  were  limited  for  the  most  part  to  the  members  of  the  congregation  and  ceased 
to  attract."  ^ 

The  constantly  recurring  accounts  for  mending  windows,  especially  after 
the  communion,  bear  evidence  to  the  rough  manners  of  the  time.  On 
Jan.  22,  1781,  some  evil-disposed  persons  wantonly  discharged  "  a 
loaded  gun  against  one  of  the  church  windows  whereby  it  was  much 
damaged."  The  suspects  were  complained  of  to  the  Justices.  The 
chui-chyard  gates  and  doors  were  in  a  chronic  state  of  disrepair,  and  a 
good  deal  of  money,  which  otherwise  would  have  gone  to  relieve  the 
poor,  had  to  be  spent  on  them. 


Rev.  Jas.  Inglis'  Account  of  the  West  TJ.P.  Church,  Johnstone. 


CHAPTER   X. 


Industrial  and  Social  Condition  of  Kilbarchan  in  the 
Eighteenth  Century. 


The  old  order  changeth,  yielding  place  to  new, 

And  God  fulfils  himself  in  many  ways, 

Lest  one  good  custom  should  corrupt  the  world. 

-Tenni/son. 

Population — Great  increase  during  the  eighteenth  century — Distribution  of  the  population  be- 
tween the  village  and  the  country — Industries — Agriculture  on  the  lower  and  on  the  higher 
ground — Rotation  of  crops — Cattle  and  horses — Mills  and  thirlage — Weaving  and  weavers' 
earnings  a  century  ago — Cotton  Mills  at  Bridge  of  Weir,  Linwood  and  Kilbarchan — Bleaching 
—  Mining— Waulk-and  Lint-Mills  —  Linen-and  cotton-thread  —  Candle-making  —  Brewing  — 
Tobacco-growing — Fairs  and  Amusements — Lily's  and  Barchan's  Days — Procession  at  the 
Summer  Fair — Quarrelsome  gentlemen — A  subscription  race — Jockeying  at  the  Kilbarchan 
Races— "  Courtin'  Monday  "—The  game  of  bullets— Recruiting  and  Emigration— Kilbarchan 
deserters — Living,  Dress  and  Manners — Increasing  politeness — Pickery— Thigging  curses 
—Harae-sucken— Poaching— Societies— Farmer  Society— General  Society— Weaver  Society- 
Masonic  Lodge. 


I. — Popvlation. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  the  population  of  Kilbarchan  more  than 
trebled  itself.  The  following  numbers,  gathered  from  various  sources,  are, 
we  presume,  upon  the  whole  reliable  : — 


In  1695 

the  population  was 

...   977 

„  1755 

,,        „ 

...   1485 

„  1774 

„ 

...  2305 

„  1791 

)j        )> 

...  2506 

„  1801 

„ 

...  3151 

Distribution  of  Population. — In  1695  the  Kirkton  or  Village  of 
Kilbarchan  consisted  of  but  a  very  few  houses  clustered  round  the 
church  ;    smiths,   weavers,    cordiners  (shoemakers),   and    even    chapmen 

171 


172  KILBAKCHAN. 

(shopkeepers)  were  not  gathered  together  in  the  village,  but  were 
scattered  over  the  whole  parish/ 

In  1740  the  village  contained  but  forty  families,  and  its  population 
cannot,  therefore,  have  been  much  more  than  200. 

In  1774  there  were  in  the  village  304  families,  accommodated  in  142 
houses,  98  of  which  were  of  one  storey,  and  44  oi  two  storeys  ;  122  of  the 
houses  were  thatched,  only  20  were  slated. 

By  1782  twenty-four  new  houses  had  been  built. 

In  1791  a  census  was  taken  under  the  direction  of  the  Parish 
Minister  (Maxwell)  which  showed — 

Number  of  families  in  Village,  391— Males  762,  females  822. 
County,   172—     „      440,       „        482. 

The  excess  of  females  over  males  Maxwell  explains  by  saying  that  the 
sons  were  sent  to  towns  to  business  and  to  learn  trades,  whereas  the 
daughters  found  employment  at  home — on  farms,  in  the  bleachfields, 
and  in  the  cotton  factories. 

//. — Industries. 

Agriculture. — Before  15G0,  when  the  monks  at  Paisley  were  pro- 
prietors of  a  large  part  of  the  parish,  agriculture  was  almost  the  sole 
occupation  of  the  people  of  Kilbarchan.  More  than  a  century  later,  at 
the  time  of  the  Poll  Tax,  the  number  of  those  engaged  in  farming  opera- 
tions still  far  exceeded  those  engaged  in  all  other  pursuits.  It  was 
not  till  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  any  manufac- 
tures worthy  of  the  name  were  established  in  the  parish,  and  with  them 
came  a  rise  in  farm-rents  and  in  the  price  of  farm-labour.  Maxwell 
notices  this  and  explains  it  by  the  following   trite  economic  maxims  : — 

'  For  purposes  of  comparison  we  subjoin  the  census  returns  for  1901  : — 

Males.      Females.      Total. 
Village  of  Kilbarchan,  1343  1543  2886 

,,      ,,  Bridge  of  Weir  (Kilbarchan  Parish),  ... 
Country  District  (Kilbarchan), 

,,              ,,      (Bridge  of  Weir,  Kilbarchan  Parish), 
Village  of  Linwood, 

,,      ,,  Blackstoun,  

,,      ,,  Clippens, 

Country  District  around  Linwood,  etc.,    ... 


G71 

932 

1603 

2G4 

300 

564 

37 

37 

74 

5G2 

606 

1168 

174 

162 

336 

135 

126 

261 

165 

169 

334 

INDUSTKIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  17;J 

"  Land  is  of  no  value  without  iiiluihitaiits  to  cultivate  and  cunsunie  the 
fruits  of  it."  "Rise  of  rent  has  therefore  kept  pace  with  progre.ss  of 
manufacture  and  increase  of  population." 

Before  1750  few  of  the  proprietors — apart  from  the  greater  ones — 
appear  to  have  had  in  their  possession  any  valid  titles  to  the  lands  they 
owned  ;  after  1750  no  land  was  out  of  title. 

Daring  the  first  half  of  the  century  rents  were  paid  largely  in  kind, 
and  when  the  rent  was  paid  in  money  the  land  brought  only  from  5s.  to 
7s.  an  acre.  After  the  middle  of  the  century  rents  were  usually  paid  in 
money.  In  178'2  the  best  land  brought  20s.  an  acre,  and  in  1794,  50s. 
and  even  GOs.,  though  the  average  was  only  between  25s.  and  30s. 
The  total  rent  for  agricultural  land  in  1791  was  £4542. 

Before  the  middle  of  the  century  few  of  the  fields  let  to  tenants,  were 
enclosed  by  any  sort  of  fence  or  dyke  ;  by  1782  no  good  land  remained 
unenclosed.  The  days  of  wire  fencing  were  not  yet  ;  and  Maxwell,  writ- 
ing towards  the  end  of  the  century,  tells  the  expedients  resorted  to  in  order 
to  make  trespass  for  man  or  beast  difficult.  "  The  eastern  or  low  part  is 
mostly  enclosed,  in  some  places  with  stone  dykes,  but  chiefly  with  hedge 
and  ditch.  The  thorns  ai'e  planted  either  in  the  face  of  earth  thrown 
from  the  ditch  or  on  the  top.  Another  practice  is  to  build  a  pai'apet  of 
stone,  about  3  or  4  feet  high,  on  the  edge  of  the  ditch  ;  then  thorns  are 
planted  on  the  top  perpendicular  or  they  are  stuck  in  on  the  face  of  the 

wall,  the  best  of  the  earth   being  drawn  to  the  roots In 

the  western  or  higher  parts  the  dykes  are  of  rickle  stone  gathered 
from  the  fields."  Even  then  sportsmen  were  complained  of  because 
they  broke  through  the  fences,  creating  gaps  and  so  rendering  them  in- 
effectual. The  ordinary  size  of  a  farm  was  from  40  to  GO  acres,  yet  Mr. 
Ptodger,  either  of  Fennel  or  Fulton,  had  a  farm  extending  to  222  aci'es — 
"  all,"  it  is  added,  "  in  excellent  order." 

In  1794,  the  methods  of  farming  pursued  in  the  lower  or  eastern 
part  of  the  parish  were  appreciably  different  from  those  suitable  for  the 
higher  and  western.  The  former  district  is  mentioned  and  discussed  by 
the  Minister  first.  He  tells  us  that  only  one-third  of  a  farm  was  laboured 
and  cropped,  the  rest  being  under  pastui'e  or  hay,  and  that  the  whole 
farm  was  not  under  one  rotation.  The  arable  part,  after  producing  two 
crops  of  oats,  was  manured  for  a  crop  of  potatoes  or  barley  ;  the  parts  not 
arable  yielded  hay  for  two  seasons  and  were  then  pastured  for  three  or  four 
years.  Beans  and  wheat  had  been  tried,  but  the  crops  had  not  been  a 
success,  owing  to  the  lateness  and  dampness  of  the  seasons.     The  fault  of 


174  KILBARCHAN. 

tills  system,  according  to  the  Minister,  was  that  all  the  labour  came  on  at 
one  time,  obliging  a  farmer  to  keep  more  servants  and  horses  than  he  could 
find  work  for  all  the  year  round ;  he  suggests  that  the  farmer  should 
take  to  dairying  and  cattle  feeding,  because  there  was  a  good  market  for 
such  produce  among  the  workers  at  the  cotton  mills  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, and  that  for  his  dairy  stock  he  should  grow  cabbages,  carrots, 
turnijDS,  winter  vetches.  Potatoes,  he  says,  were  being  grown,  and  yielded 
excellent  returns ;  sometimes  they  were  planted  in  drills,  sometimes  in 
"  lazy  beds."  The  latter  method  was  that  adopted  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Linwood  Moss,  where  the  sets  were  covered  with  nearly  a  foot  of  moss, 
which  when  dry  was  set  on  fire,  and  the  ashes  formed  an  excellent 
manure. 

In  the  higher  parts  of  the  parish  the  good  soil  was  scattered  about  in 
patches  amongst  the  i-ocks,  and  was  full  of  loose  stones.  The  rotation  in 
use  here  was  three  or  four  crops  of  oats  in  succession,  after  which  the 
ground  was  allowed  to  lie  fallow.  This  appeared  to  the  Minister  to  be  a 
very  bad  method  of  farming.  He  says  that  the  land  ought  to  be  top 
dressed  and  sown  with  grass  to  give  it  a  chance  of  producing  what  it  was 
best  fitted  to  produce.  Here  also  potatoes  were  usually  sown  in  "  lazy 
beds,"  sometimes  in  drills.  After  the  potato  crop,  oats  or  barley  was 
sown.  Throughout  the  parish  patches  of  lint  were  grown,  but  only  for 
the  labourers'  own  use. 

Cattle  and  Horses. — The  cows  most  esteemed  were  those  with  a 
small  mouth,  head  and  neck  long  and  small,  in  colour  spotted  brown  and 
white.  Those  reared  on  the  lower  ground  farms  yielded  8  or  10  pints  of 
milk  per  day  and  were  worth  to  their  owners  £8  or  £10  yearly,  while 
those  on  the  higher  ground  yielded  6  pints  per  day,  and  were  worth  only 
£3  per  annum.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  how  this  could  be,  unless 
the  remoteness  of  consumers  made  dairying  less  profitable  on  the  higher 
ground.  The  prices  of  milk  per  Scots  pint  were  :  new  milk  2d,  skimmed 
milk  Id,  butter  milk  ^d.  In  1791  there  were  1277  cows  in  the  country 
districts,  and  42  in  the  village. 

Horses  were  usually  of  the  Lanarkshire  breed,  excellent  for  strength 
and  mettle.  A  plough  was  generally  drawn  by  three,  sometimes  by  two 
horses  ;  a  driver  was  necessary  as  well  as  the  ploughman  proper.  In  1791 
there  were  242  horses  in  the  country  districts  and  19  in  the  village.  Few 
or  no  pigs  were  kept,  and  sheep  only  by  gentlemen  for  their  own  tables. 


INDUSTKIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  17f> 

Corn  Mills. — ^In  1794  there  weie  four  corn  mills  in  the  parish,  and 
in  two  of  them,  probably  Glentyan  Mill  and  Locher  Mill,  the  system  of 
thirlage  still  prevailed.  This  of  course  means  that  certain  farms  were 
thirled  or  attached  to  a  particular  mill  and  that  the  miller  had  to  be  paid 
for  grinding  the  oats  grown  on  the  thirled  lands  whether  he  ground  them 
or  not.  Thirlage  was  paid  in  kind  and  varied  from  three  to  eight  per  cent. 
All  grain  save  oats  was  free.  The  Minister  speaks  of  this  as  a  barbarous 
Gothic  practice,  and  expresses  the  hope  that  it  may  soon  be  abolished 
because  it  occasioned  constant  complaints  by  the  miller  of  evasion  and  by 
the  farmers  of  slovenly  execution.  At  the  Mill  of  Cart  thirlage  had  been 
in  1794  abolished,  and  in  lieu  of  this  due  the  tenants  paid  6d.  per  acre. 
The  miller  at  this  mill  was  accused  in  1742-3  of  theft  and  pickery,  and 
perhaps  this  hastened  the  change  of  payment.  At  Johnstone  Mill 
(Milliken  Mill)  thirlage  had  been  moderated  in  1794.' 

Weavixo. — Weaving  is  not  so  ancient  an  industry  in  Kilbarchan 
as  might  be  supposed.  In  1695  there  were  in  the  parish  only  thirty 
or  forty  weavers  including  apprentices,  and  these  were  probably  all 
customer  weavers.  In  1739  John  Barbour  built  a  factory,  probably  in  the 
Stack  Yard,  and  began  to  make  thick  linen.  In  1742  Allan  Speirs  began 
the  manufacture  of  a  higher  class  of  goods — lawns,  cambrics,  etc. — for 
which  he  found  a  mai'ket  chiefly  in  Dublin.  In  1782  this  industry  was 
still  on  the  increase,  Alexander  Speirs,^  John  and  Humphrey  Barbour  in 
company,  John  Hov^,  John  Barbour,  jun.,  and  John  Houston  employing- 
amongst  them  three  hundred  and  sixty  looms.  Semple  calculates  that 
each  weaver  could  in  1782  make  £65  per  annum,  and  Rev.  Robert 
Douglas  says  that  at  the  end  of  the  century  a  good  workman  could  earn 
as  much  as  10s.  a  day.  In  1791  there  were  383  looms  in  the  village  and 
34  in  the  county  district. 

'  A  lease  (in  the  possession  of  Mr.  James  Caldwell,  Writer,  Paisley)  of  Barrbush  Park  (a  park 
opposite  the  Manse  Avenue),  to  Walter  Caldwell  and  Alexander  Lyle,  of  date  1777,  obliges  the 
tenants  to  have  any  corn  grown  on  this  park  (seed  and  horse-corn  excepted)  ground  at  Milliken  Mill 
for  payment  of  oufentoun  dues  and  multures  (i.e.,  adequate  remuneration  for  the  work  done). 

- 1  am  indebted  to  Mr.  James  Caldwell,  Paisley,  for  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  in  his 
possession  addressed  to  Mr.  Alexander  Speirs,  Kilbarchan,  by  liis  correspondent,  Daniel  Stuart, 
Dublin,  dated  2Cth  April,  1788  : — "Muslins  both  stripped  and  spotted  will  be  a  good  deal   wore 

this  summer.     How  far  you  are  safe  to  manufacture  many  of  them  you  must  judge 

Your  stripes  last  year  were  very  well  liked.     The  neatest  of  them  are  gone  long  ago 

Any  stripes  you  make  must  be  a  few  nine  hunders,  10  and  11  hunders  principally,  and  a  few  12 
hunders,  all  5  wide.  The  demand  here  runs  from  53.  to  Cs.,  but  particularly  from  Cs.  to  7s.  or 
7s.  6d.,  seldom  higher,  ecc. ,  etc." 


176  KILBAECHAN. 

Cotton  Spinning. — By  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  cotton 
spinning  had  ah-eady  become  an  important  industry  in  the  parish.  The 
old  Red  Mill  on  the  Gryffe  was  built  before  1792,  and  was  owned  by 
Messrs.  Carlisle  and  Rorison.  Grytfe  Mill  was  built  in  1793,  and  con- 
tained 2120  spindles.  It  was  capable  of  giving  employment  to  seventy 
persons,  chiefly  women  and  children.  There  were  only  1664  spindles 
working  in  1794,  and  the  employees  numbered  no  more  than  49. 

The  Mill  at  Linwood,  "the  most  splendid  establishment  in  the 
cotton  spinning  business  perhaps  in  Britain,"  was  in  course  of  erection 
and  nearing  completion  in  1794.  When  finished,  its  length  was  to  be 
339  feet  ;  it  was  to  contain  25,000  spindles  and  to  give  employment  to 
eighteen  hundred  persons.  Owing  to  dull  times,  however,  only  seventy- 
five  persons  were  employed  when  Maxwell  wrote,  and  the  proprietors  were 
in  no  hurry  to  complete  the  building.  Power  was  supplied  by  two  water 
wheels,  one  of  which  was  so  situated  that  it  sometimes  ceased  to  work 
owing  to  tail  water.  With  evident  pride  Maxwell  tells  that  the  building 
was  six  storeys  in  height  with  garrets,  that  it  had  over  five  hundred 
windows,  that  the  rooms  were  high,  afibrding  ample  air  space,  that  the  air 
was  free  from  cotton  particles  owing  to  the  simplified  machinery,  that 
ventilation  was  provided  by  the  two  vast  staircases  in  the  building.  He 
says  that  three  half-gills  of  oil  a  day  was  sufficient  to  lubricate  the  whole 
machinery.  A  regular  town  on  an  elegant  plan  was  already  in  course  of 
erection,  and  the  minister  is  anxious  that  the  employers  should  provide 
for  the  education  of  the  young  operatives — "  for,"  he  says,  "  a  work  of 
this  sort  is  a  school  where  the  children  of  the  poor,  otherwise  a  burden 
upon  their  [)arents,  may  be  trained  to  industrj'  and  virtue."^ 

The  houses  now  known  as  Nos.  35  and  37  New  Street  were,  it  is 
understood,  erected  to  serve  as  a  cotton  mill,  though  perhaps  not  until 
after  Mr.  Maxwell's  time  ;  the  power  in  this  case  Avas  supplied  by  a  gin. 

Bleaching. — The  Kilbarchan  linen  manufacturers  had  each  his  own 
bleachtield.  The  burn  supplied  excellent  water  for  the  purpose.  "  The 
said  bleachfields,"  says  Semple,  "are  divided  into  proper  lengths  and 
breadths,  having  canals  running  through  between  the  said  divisions, 
about  three  feet  deep  and  near  as  wide,  being  well  paved  at  bottom,  and 
built  on  both  sides  about  a  foot  broad,  being  a  passage  for  the  people 
Avhile  watering  the  cloth  ;  all  of  which  is  good  cut  stone  ;  as  also  reservoirs 

^  Old  Statistical  Account. 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  177 

or  cisterns  made  in  different  places  of  the  fields,  for  holding  water  upon 
occasion,  built  likewise  of  good  cut  stone,  being  all  so  artfully  made,  that 
the  canals  in  the  acclivity  of  the  field  can  be  made  subservient  to  the 
canals  in  the  declivity.  If  the  said  canals  should  fail  in  water,  which 
seldom  happens,  they  can  have  recourse  to  very  deep  wells,  which  they 
have  dug  for  supplying  their  caldrons  and  other  w^ooden  vessels  to  stove 
their  cloth  in."'  At  Middleton  and  at  Linwood,  in  1782,  there  were 
bleachfields  in  connection  with  thread  works.  In  1704  tliere  were  three 
bleachfields  in  the  village  of  Kilbarchan,  giving  employment  to  thirty 
persons,  mostly  women. 

Mining  and  Quarrying. — Semple  mentions  Paisley  and  Kilbarchan 
as  the  two  parishes  in  the  county  where  excellent  coal  and  lime  were 
found.  In  1713,  Thomas  Kennedy,  the  proprietor  of  Pennel,  was  working 
both  coal  and  lime  on  the  lands  of  Boghonse  :  some  of  his  miners  were 
summoned  before  the  Sheriff  on  a  charge  of  intimidating  the  tenants  of 
Laigh  Pennel."  William  Cnninghame  of  Craigends  [1742-65],  "carried 
on  a  coal  work  in  his  own  barony  several  years,  wherein  were  two  kinds 
of  coal,  viz.,  the  ordinary  coal,  and  another  kind  called  light  or  splint 
coal,  which  w^ould  rise  in  pieces  six  foot  long,  nine  inches  broad,  and  six 
thick.  The  water  was  taken  out  of  the  said  coal  pits  by  a  water  engine. 
A  great  lime  work  was  also  carried  on."^  In  1755  there  were  coal  pits  in 
the  lands  of  Kaimhill,  where  plenty  of  coal  was  got.  Coal  had  been 
worked  to  the  west  of  the  Barrhill  before  1767,  for  in  that  year  James 
Milliken  improved  his  roads  with  the  waste.  The  mound  in  the  Public 
Park  consists  of  mining  refuse,  which  may  have  come  from  the  old  coal 
pit  near  Spring-grove  Quarry,  which  was  worked  until  1774,  or  from  that 
at  Brandscroft,  worked  until  1780.  The  water  in  the  well  at  the  Spout 
Head  comes  from  the  Spring-grove  pit.  In  1794  Maxwell  says  that  of 
the  seven  coal  mines  in  the  parish  only  four  were  being  wrought.  In  his 
time,  however,  the  Kilbarchan  coal  was  used  only  for  burning  lime ; 
household  coal  came  from  Paisley  Parish  and  cost  6d.  per  cwt. 

A  quarry  situated  near  Spring-grove,  long  known  as  the  Quarry 
House,  supplied  the  freestone  of  which  a  great  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury village  was  built  ;  this  freestone  was  overlain  by  the  eruptive  basalt 
rock.  It  was  in  1782  wrought  by  Walter  Caldwell,  whom  Semple  calls 
an  architect,  meaning,  presumably,  that  he  was  a  builder. 

1  litnfretrshire,  p.  114.  =  'B.ecU<i-\  Judicial  Records,  i.  pp.  73-6. 

^  Semple's  RenfreKsh  ire,  p.  133. 

Y 


178  KILBAKCHAX. 

Minor  Industries. — From  the  Poll  Tax  Rolls  we  learn  that  in  1695 
there  were  two  Waulk  or  Falling  Mills  in  the  parish  where  cloth  under- 
went the  process  of  fulling  or  shrinking.  They  were  probably  situated 
on  the  Cart.  We  infer  from  Semple  ^  that  the  lint  mill,  which  according 
to  Maxwell  was  of  excellent  construction  and  the  best  frequented  of  any 
in  the  West  of  Scotland,  was  also  on  the  Cart,  probably  where  the  Flax 
Mill  now  is. 

In  1721  Mrs.  Millar,  widow  of  the  Minister  of  Kilmaurs,  nee  Chris- 
tian Shaw  of  Bargarren,  of  witchcraft  fame,  removed  to  Johnstone,  which 
until  1733  was  within  the  bounds  of  Kilbarchan,  and  there  in  company 
with  her  mother  the  Lady  Bargarren  and  her  sisters  carried  on  the 
manufacture  of  linen  thread.  Their  advertisement,  which  appeared  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  time,  read  as  follows  : — 

"  The  Lady  Bargarren  and  her  daughters  having  attained  to  a  great 
perfection  in  making,  whitening,  and  twisting  of  SEWING  THREED, 
which  is  as  cheap  and  white,  and  known  by  experience  to  be  much 
stronger  than  the  Dutch,  to  prevent  people's  being  imposed  upon  by  other 
Threed,  which  may  be  sold  under  the  name  of  '  Bargarren  Threed,' 
the  papers  in  which  the  Lady  Bargarren  and  her  daughters  at  Bargarren, 
or  Mrs.  Miller,  her  eldest  daughter  (Christian,  now  a  widow),  at  John- 
stone, do  put  up  their  Threed,  shall,  for  direction,  have  thereupon  their 
Coat  of  Arms,  '  a:ure  three  covered  cups  or.'  Those  who  want  the  said 
Threed,  which  is  to  be  sold  from  fivepence  to  six  shillings  per  ounce, 
may  write  to  the  Lady  Bargarren  at  Bargarren,  or  Mrs.  Miller  at  John- 
stone, near  Paisley,  to  the  care  of  the  Postmaster  at  Glasgow  ;  and  may 
call  for  the  samen  in  Edinburgh,  at  John  Seton,  merchant,  his  shop  in 
the  Parliament  Close,  where  they  will  be  served  either  in  Wholesale  or 
Eetail  ;  and  will  be  served  in  the  same  manner  at  Glasgow,  by  William 
Selkirk,  merchant,  in  Trongate."  - 

According  to  Semple  there  was  in  17S'2  at  Middleton  ''  a  thread  bleach- 
tield,  as  also  thread-making  carried  on  by  Mr.  James  Semple,  junior ;  " 
and  at  Lin  wood  "  there  is  another  thread  bleachfield  carried  on  by  Mr. 
James  Cochran."  ^ 

Before  1739  the  Messrs.  Barbour  had  a  candle  factory  in  Kilbarchan 
"  which  acquired  great  celebrity."  In  17S2  a  large  brewery  was  carried 
on  by  Mr.  John  Houston.  In  1794  there  were  two  candle  works  and  the 
brewery.  No.  36  Steeple  Street,  or  the  building  behind  it,  is  still  known 
as  "  The  Can'le  House,"  and  may  have  been  the  scene  of  Mr.  Barbour's 
operations. 

'  Benfreicshiie,  p.  129.  -'  Witches  of  Benfiea-shiff,  p.  xxv.         ^  Renfiewihire,  p.  137. 


INDUSTRIAL  COXDITIOX  IX  THE  EIGHTEEXTH  CEXTUKY.  179 

When  Semple  wrote  an  intei-esting  experiment  was  being  made  at 
Craigends.  Five  acres  \\ithin  tlie  policies  were  planted  with  tobacco  ; 
but  unfortunately  no  record  has  been  left  of  the  success  attending  the 
experiment. 


///. — Fair.'i  and  Ainuseyne^its. 

It  is  decidedly  more  interesting,  and  perhaps  more  instructive  to  see 
people  at  their  play  than  to  watch  them  at  their  work.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  the  Fair  Days — Lily's  Day  [3rd  Tuesday  of  July,  U.S.]  and 
Barchan's  Day  [1st  Tuesday  of  December,  O.S.] — were  great  occasions  for 
the  pleasure-loving.  At  the  Summer  Fair  "  there  was  a  public  market 
held  where  dairy  and  other  farm  produce  and  wool  and  lint  then  spun 
in  every  household — as  well  as  wooden  utensils  and  horses  and  cattle, 
were  exposed  for  sale."  ^  "  There  was  a  cow  market  in  the  forenoon  and 
foot  and  horse  I'aces  in  the  afternoon,  where  the  tradesmen  go  through 
the  town  in  grand  procession,  with  a  captain,  lieutenant,  ensigns,  ad- 
jutant, sergeants,  corpoi'als,  and  others;  drums  beating,  colours  flying, 
music  playing,  garlands,  swords,  etc.,  brocaded."  -  Doubtless  there  would 
be  kindred  celebrations  on  Barchan's  Day,  but  of  a  kind  more  suitable  for 
wintery  weather. 

The  effect  of  a  day  given  over  lai'gely  or  entirely  to  pleasure  on  the 
nerves  of  a  people  who  were  regular  and  industrious  in  their  habits  was 
exhausting  ;  men  became  irritable  and  quarrelsome.  On  Lily's  Day,  1G87, 
Andrew  How  in  Pennell  and  James  Stevenson  in  Ranfurly,  two  men  in 
highly  respectable  positions,  quarrelled  and  fought.  How  had  the  best  of 
the  fight,  but  decidedly  the  worst  of  the  subsequent  legal  proceedings. 
The  fight,  we  regret  to  have  to  record,  was  not  conducted  according  to  the 
rules  which  regulate  contests  in  the  ring  :  the  "  ane  shott  in  the  breast  " 
would  pass,  but  the  "  fastening  of  the  hands  of  one  of  the  combatants 
in  the  other's  hair "  was  decidedly  unscientific.  How,  who  was  the 
aggressor  both  in  word  and  deed,  had  to  answer  for  his  conduct  first 
before  the  Baron's  Court,  where  CVaigends'  Bailie  presided,  and  was  fined 
£30  Scots  ;  and  next  before  the  Sheriff"  at  Paisley,  where  he  was  again 
fined  £10  Sc,  payable  to  the  fiscal  and  £5  Sc.  assythment  (damages) 
to  the  pursuer.* 

'  Hector's  Judicial  Records,  ii.  p.  87.  -  Crawford  and  Seiiiple's  Benfrewshire,  p.  113. 

^  Hector's  Judicial  Records,  ii.   pp.   8G-90. 


180  KILBAECHAN. 

The  townsfolk,  either  out  of  a  love  of  sport  or  with  an  eye  to  business, 
did  what  they  could  to  encourage  horse  racing.  In  an  old  account  book  of 
David  Kerr,  master  mason,  Kilbarchan,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  O.  G. 
MacGregor,  Church  Street,  Kilbarchan,  there  is  a  page  headed  "  Proposals 
for  a  race  by  superscriptions;"  the  date  is  about  1755.  Twenty-seven 
names  of  subscribers  follow  ;  nine  contributed  a  shilling,  and  the  re- 
mainder sixpence  apiece.  The  horse  race  was  not  always  conducted  iu 
a  fair  and  sportmanslike  spirit  ;  yet  glory  rather  than  gain  was  the 
guerdon  ;  the  first  prize  was  a  saddle  of  the  value  of  between  £3  and 
£6  Scots.  In  1718  a  grey  horse  owned  by  John  Gardner,  merchant  in 
Paisley,  and  ridden  by  one  William  Campbell,  appeared  at  a  certain  stage 
in  the  race  to  be  the  likely  winner.  Matthew  Lindsay,  a  Houston  man, 
who  was  riding  his  own  horse,  had  also  started,  but  for  some  reason  he 
gave  up  early  in  the  race.  Desiring  still  to  control  the  issue,  he  drevr 
to  the  side  and  waited  for  the  horses  on  the  return  journey.  As  they 
approached  he  rode  straight  for  Gardner's  horse  and  "  with  ane  great  oak 
stick  straik  many  times  at  the  lyder  and  beat  the  s''  hoise  over  the 
forehead  and  nose  till  the  blood  sprung  out  thereat,  whereby  Gardner's 
horse  lost  the  race."  ^  Lindsay  had  to  pay  in  fines  and  damages  the  sum 
of  £43  Scots. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether  an  eighteenth  centiuy  Communion 
afforded  more  of  social  enjoyment  or  of  religious  edification.  We  have 
already  mentioned  it  under  the  head  to  which,  ostensibly  at  least,  it 
more  properly  belongs.  The  occasion,  so  far  as  it  was  of  a  religious 
character,  was  brought  to  a  close  with  the  benediction,  which  con- 
cluded the  Monday  service.  After  that,  however,  there  was  a  good 
part  of  a  summer  day  to  be  spent  in  a  manner  which,  it  was  fitting, 
should  make  it  different  from  an  ordinary  Monday.  Part  of  the  com- 
munity certainly  rose  to  the  occasion  and  to  the  standard  expected  of 
them,  by  spending  it  in  the  pleasant  but  serious  pastime  of  courting.  At 
the  great  gatherings  which  took  place  at  the  Sacrament,  young  men  and 
maidens  made  each  other's  acquaintance  for  the  first  time  or  renewed  an 
intimacy  made  on  a  former  though  less  auspicious  occasion.  On  the 
Communion  Sunday  there  might  be  stealthy  and  admiring  glances  ; 
those  of  course  it  were  impossible  to  avoid,  but  the  practical  matter  of 
marriage  could  not  then  be  fitly  and  fully  discussed  ;  that  was  left  for 
the    Monday    afternoon.       The    day    became    known  and    recognised  as 

•Judicial  Beconh,  i.   nu.  03-C. 


INDUSTKIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY.  181 

''  Courting  Monday,"  for  then  the  lads  ventured  to  visit  their  sweethearts 
at  their  homes,  and  sought  (not  of  course  always  successfully)  to  come  to 
an  understanding  with  them  and,  if  necessary,  with  their  parents. 

The  Scottish  people  cannot  claim  to  have  originated  many  games. 
Those  which  owe  their  existence  to  the  native  genius  of  the  country  have 
always  this  character — that  manly  strength  is  required,  though  skill  is 
not  excluded,  indeed  it  cannot  he  from  any  hasis  where  man  meets  man. 
A  characteristic  Scottish  game  was  that  of  hiiUets  ;  it  was  a  game  played 
in  Kilbarchan  and  throughout  Renfrewshire,  both  before  and  after  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  during  the  century  it  was  a  favourite  game. 
The  essentials  were  two  iron  balls  of  the  weight  of  two  pounds  or  less,  and 
two  players  to  throw  them.  Before  starting,  the  number  of  chances 
or  shots  which  each  should  have  was  arranged — usually  five  or  seven. 
The  object  was  to  outdistance  one's  opponent  at  the  end  of  the  arranged 
number  of  throws,  starting  each  time  from  the  j^oint  where  the  last 
throw  left  the  ball — just  as  in  golf  The  course  was  the  public  road. 
In  important  matclies  seconds  ran  on  ahead  and  advised,  as  the  skip 
does  in  curling,  at  what  point  his  player  should  aim  so  that  the  ball  should 
go  as  far  as  possible  by  rolling  along  the  ground  after  it  fell.  The 
game  might  be  played  with  two  players  on  each  side  as  at  golf,  there 
being  however  but  two  balls.  It  was  of  course  a  dangerous  game,  since 
the  course  was  the  public  road  and  the  bullets  travelled  with  a  consider- 
able momentum  though  always  delivered  underhand.  It  is  said  that  Kil- 
barchan players  were  known — of  course  in  the  excitement  of  the  contest 
and  on  account  of  the  considerable  sums  staked  on  the  result — to  express 
grave  doubts  as  to  whether  the  public  roads  had  been  made  for  bulleters 
or  for  the  convenience  of  travellers  and  for  farmers'  carts.  The  gentleman 
of  the  name  of  Ramsay,  whose  funeral  John  Stirling  attended  on  the  week 
of  his  own  death,  1683,  died  when  playing  at  bullets  at  Lochwinnoch.^ 
About  the  year  184G,  four  famous  Kilbarchan  bulleters — John  Hunter, 
William  Brown,  Alexander  Meikle,  James  Houston — met  four  men  of 
equal  i'ame  belonging  to  Paisley  in  a  great  bulleting  match.  The  course 
was  along  the  Beitli  Road  from  the  "  four  windings  "  near  Milliken  Park 
Railway  Station  towards  Quarrelton.  This  was  perhaps  the  last  great 
match  played,  because  soon  afterwards  bulleting  came  to  be  strictly  for- 
bidden as  dangerous  to  the  lieges.  And  so  this  ancient  game  has  dis- 
appeared within  the  memory  of  men  not  much  past  middle  life,  probably 
never  to  be  revived. 

'Ante,  p.  88. 


182  KILBARCHAN. 


IV. — Recruiting  and  Emigration, 

In  the  eighteenth  century  Kilbarchan  yielded  a  much  better  harvest 
to  the  recruiting  officer  than  it  does  now.  During  the  Jacobite  troubles 
of  1745,  there  were  no  fewer  than  fifty  militia  men  from  Kilbarchan.  In 
1794,  when  the  long  war  with  France  [1793-1815]  was  no  more  than 
begun,  fifty-five  young  men  from  the  village  had  entered  the  army  and 
fifteen  the  navy — "  besides,"  says  Maxwell,  "  others  from  the  country 
from  pure  necessity."'  "  In  former  wars  a  number  of  tradesmen  were  wont 
to  go  to  sea,  particularly  in  privateers,  where  they  expected  better  wages 
and  more  prize-money  than  in   the   navy.     But  they  seldom  remained 

longer  than    the   war   lasted Those    who   formerly  went 

to  sea  turned  out  drunken  and  dissipated  ;  those  who  returned  from  the 
army  proved  sober  and  industrious."  " 

Maxwell  makes  no  mention  of  desertion — perhaps  in  his  time  no 
Kilbarchan  soldiers  left  the  army  without  permission.  A  hundred  years 
before,  however,  the  Parish  enjoyed  an  unenviable  notoriety  in  this 
respect.  In  1G94  John  How  of  Damstoun  was  fined  £10  Sterling  for 
sheltering  two  lads,  John  Park  and  William  Patoun,  who  had  deserted 
from  Sir  William  Douglas'  Regiment' ;  and  in  the  very  same  year  nineteen 
men  and  seventeen  women,  nearly  all  of  them  Kilbarchan  people,  were 
accused  of  seeking  to  rescue  a  deserter  who  was  being  curried  back  to 
his  regiment.  The  indictment  accuses  them  of  l^eing  amongst  the  "  mob 
of  inhabitants  who  did  '  raball '  together,  and  with  battouns,  rungs,  and 
stones,  did  fall  upon  Lieutenant  William  Lindsay  and  Sergeant  William 
Orr,"  who  with  a  l^arty  of  soldiers  had  arrested  William  Paterson  the 
deserter.  The  kindly  intentions  of  the  Kilbarchan  peojile  towards  the 
reluctant  young  soldier,  and  their  "  battering,  wounding,  and  blooding  " 
of  the  officers  in  command,  cost  them  fines  amounting  to  £260  Sterling — 
an  enormous  sum  in  tliose  days.^ 

For  fourteen  years  before  1794,  Maxwell  tells  us,  there  had  Ijeen  no 
emigration  from  the  parish  because  work  had  been  plentiful  ;  but  that 
very  year,  owing  to  dull  trade  and  lack  of  employment,  three  families  had 
already  set  out  for  America,  and  many  more  were  preparing  to  follow. 

■  Old  Statistical  Account.  =  Ibid. 

=  Hector's  Judicial  liecords,   i.   pp.  183-6.  ^  Ibid.,  ii.  pp.  109-12. 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 


V. — Liviiu/,    Dress,  (aid   Manners. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century  there  was  a  marked  improveaieut  in 
the  cuishie  of  working  peoples'  tables,  both  in  respect  to  quality  and 
variety;  e.g.,  tea  and  butcher  meat,  luxuries  undreamt  of  before  except 
on  rare  occasions,  were  available  to  people  of  all  descriptions.  The  minis- 
ter says  of  his  people  that  in  general  they  were  sober  and  industrious — 
that  their  one  extravagance  was  in  the  matter  of  dress,  and  tliat  they 
were  daily  acquiring  more  politeness  and  urbanity  of  manner. 

During  the  century  there  are  few  church  discipline  cases  of  mucli 
interest.  A  Kilbarchan  lady,  Mary  Craige  by  name,  was  brought  Ijefore 
the  Presbytery  in  1700  on  a  charge  of  exchanging  uncomplimentary  greet- 
ings with  a  neighbour,  Robert  Widrow.  Mary  had  expressed  a  fond 
desire  to  see  Robert's  "  soul  frying  in  hell,"  and  the  chivalrous  Ptobert 
indicated  that  he  hoped  to  see  Mary  some  day  "  hinging  in  the  Gallow 
Green  of  Paisley."  Connoisseurs  will  readily  admit  that  in  power  of 
imagination  and  strength  of  language  the  lady  quite  surjiassed  the 
gentleman. 

We  are  informed  by  the  late  Mr.  William  Hector  that  in  1753  a 
Kilbarchan  man  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law  on  the  Gallow 
Green  of  Paisley,  though  his  offence,  let  us  be  thankful  for  it,  was  only 
theft  and  robbery.'  Kilbarchan  could  also  produce  instances  of  sheep- 
stealing  and  cattle-lifting,  of  theft  and  poaching.  These  seem,  however, 
vulgar  crimes  of  which  there  is  no  reason  to  boast.  It  is  difficult,  how- 
ever, not  to  have  a  sort  of  criminal  respect  for  a  parish  which  could  pro- 
duce instances  of  such  obscure  crimes  as  pickery,  thigging  curses,  and 
hame-sucken.  Pickery  was  the  crime  of  one  Blair,  tenant  of  Auchincloich 
one  hundred  and  ninety-six  years  ago  ;  though  "  opulent  and  substantious 
and  of  ane  high  profession  "  he  was  mean  enough  to  take  under  cloud  of 
night  from  George  Barr  "  ane  burden  of  mashlum  (mixed)  corn,  from  the 
Laird  of  Craigends  some  chalfe  corn,"  and  from  several  neighbours  "stuks 
of  corn,  burdens  of  their  staikes,  and  ane  straik  of  ane  syth."  Being 
found  guilty,  Blair  was  fined  five  hundred  merks  and  had  •'  to  stand  in  the 
juggs  of  Pasley  "  with  a  paper  on  his  breast  setting  forth  his  mean  and 
contemptible  thefts." 

■  Hector's  Judicial  Records,  i.  pp.  24(j-8.  '-  Ibid.,  i.  pp.  193-7. 


184  KILBARCHAN. 

The  niillei-  afc  Johnstone  Mill  was  the  person  accused  in  1720  of 
"  thigging  curses."  The  object  of  his  hate  was  the  family  of  Houstoun 
•of  Houston  which  he  liad  roundly  abused,  nsing  for  his  purpose  certain 
strange  and  powerful  curses.  The  crime,  bad  enough  in  itself,  was  con- 
sidered to  be  greatly  aggravated  by  tlie  fact  that  the  Houstouns  were 
persons  of  "Honour  and  Nott."  '  Robert  Taylzeour,  flesher  in  Kilbarchan, 
and  Jean  Houston,  his  spouse,  had  in  1697  spoken  as  strongly  against 
the  Allus.souns  of  Barns  Croft,  but  were  accused  only  of  "  slandering  and 
backbyting."-  Four  years  later  the  same  miller  of  Johnstone,  now  miller 
iit  Glentyan,  committed  the  crime  oF  Hame-suchen.  He  had  gone  in  the 
night-time  to  the  house  of  Andrew  Biodie,  forced  his  way  into  the  sleeping 
apartment  of  a  lodger,  an  officer  of  excise,  compelled  the  poor  man  to  get 
out  of  bed  in  the  lightest  apparel  possible,  thrown  him  downstairs,  thus  in- 
flicting on  his  victim  severe  bruises  in  addition  to  making  him  catcli  cold.^ 

The  poaching  prosecution  was  a  wholesale  affair.  It  occurred  in  1716 
and  involved  no  fewer  than  fifty-four  persons,  nearly  all  resident  in  Kil- 
barchan and  all  either  farmers  or  connected  with  the  agricultural  interest. 
They  were  variously  accused  of  killing  hares,  doves,  wild  duck,  partridges, 
woodcock,  and  with  steeping  green  lint  in  streams  and  ponds  for  the  pur- 
pose of  killing  or  stupefying  the  fish.*  Those  who  did  not  confess  the 
■crime  of  which  they  were  charged  were  held  to  be  guilty  unless  they 
could  prove  their  innocence — a  device  which  simplified  greatly  the  diffi- 
culties incident  to  the  ^prosecutor's  office. 

The  date  of  the  sheep-stealing  case  was  1689.  The  accused  were 
Matthew  Sproull  and  Thomas  Barber,  residing  in  Cauldwalaw,  which  one 
would  fain  disclaim  since  it  cannot  be  identified,  yet  it  is  said  by  Hector 
to  have  been  a  place  in  Kilbarchan.  It  is  to  l)e  feared  that  the  accused 
were  guilty,  as  they  did  not  appear  to  ans-Aver  to  the  charges,  and  were 
therefore  declared  to  be  outlaws.* 

Kilbarchan  manners  and  morals  wei'e  at  least  as  far  short  of  being 
perfect  then  as  they  are  now  ;  there  was  ample  room  for  the  day  to  day 
improvement  which  overtook  them  in  Mr.  Maxwell's  time  ;  and  3'et  con- 
sidering that  the  record  of  crime  of  which  we  have  been  dealing  was  the 
product  of  over  fifty  years,  there  nuist  have  been  many  places  where  a 
man's  person  and  property  were  less  safe  and  his  morals  more  liable  to 
contamination  than  in  Kilbarchan. 


'  Hector's  JticUciat  Records,  i.  pp.  2] 5-9.  -  Ibid.,  ii.  pp.  151-3. 

Ibid.,  i.  pp.  221-4.  *  Ibid.,  i.  pp.  208-12.  ^  Ihid.,  ii.  pp.  148  151 


INDUSTRIAL  CONDITION  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 


VI. — Societies — Benefit  and  Friendly. 

Kilbiirchan  has  been  prolific  in  societies,  the  purpose  of  which  was  in 
the  first  instance  mutual  benefit  ;  one  of  them,  however,  lent  itself  to 
mutual  instruction  as  well. 

The  earliest  was  Kilbarchan  Fahmer  Society,  founded  in  January, 
1765.  The  original  members  numbered  twenty-four.  One  is  inclined  to 
give  Mr.  Warner  the  credit  of  being  its  founder.  He  at  all  events  wrote 
for  it  two  appropriate  addresses,  which  after  being  delivered  at  the  winter 
meetings  were  subsequently  published  in  pamphlet  form.'  The  Society 
could  boast  also  of  a  laureate  in  the  person  of  Hugh  Brodie,  Longcraft, 
Lochwinnoch.  His  address,  delivei'ed  in  January,  1769,  took  the  form  of 
what  out  of  courtesy  we  may  call  a  poem.  The  whole  sixty  verses  may 
be  found  in  Semple's  Renfreivshire,  p.  IIG.  Some  idea  of  Mr.  Brodie  as  a 
theologian,  economist,  and  versifier,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following 
lines  : — 

For  man  was  taken  by  the  hand. 
And  led  forth  to  improve  the  land  ; 
Was  promis'd  bread,  and  got  command, 

It  should  be  drest : 
So  farmers  ought  to  understand 

What  pains  are  best. 

Much  more  so  in  this  present  age, 

When  farms  are  dear,  and  servants'  wage'. 

The  farmers'  wisdom  most  engage. 

And  vigilance. 
For  support  on  this  mortal  stage, 

Till  he's  call'd  hence. 

So,  if  to  me  you'll  lend  your  lug, 
I'll  tell  you  of  a  barren  bog 
(Excepting  short  heath,  bent  and  fog). 

It  yielded  nought, 
Till  once  you  hear  how  I  it  dug, 

And  how  it  wrought. 

The  Society  had  two  classes  of  members,  those  who  elected  to  pay  a  pound 
once  for  all,  and  those  who  paid  a  yearly  subscription  of  2s.  6d.  The 
entry  fees  amounted  to  2s.  9d.      Annual  subscribers  were  not  entitled  to 


,  p.  140. 

z 


186  KILBARCHAN. 

benefit  until  they  had  made  three  annual  payments.  Benefit  varied  from 
2s.  to  4s.  a  week,  and  could  be  claimed  by  members  who  were  disabled 
from  working,  by  any  sickness  or  affliction,  not  the  effects  of  vice  or  riots, 
and  were  thereby  reduced  to  straits.  In  1794,  scarcely  thirty  years  after 
its  inception,  the  capital  fund  of  the  Society  amounted  to  £850.  Froni 
this  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  membeiship  was  very  large,  and  that 
benefit  was  very  seldom  claimed.  The  statutory  meetings  of  the  Society 
were  fixed  for  the  first  Fridays  of  January  and  July,  N.S.  At  the  former 
meeting  office-bearers — the  clerk  and  the  beadle — were  elected. 

The  idea  embodied  in  the  Farmer  Society  soon  became  popular,  and 
in  less  than  a  year — December,  1765 — the  Kilbakchan  General  Society 
was  started.  Its  constitution  was  much  the  same  as  the  Farmer  Society. 
The  original  members — heritors,  merchants,  tradesmen — were  also  twenty- 
four  in  numbei-.  There  were  the  same  two  classes  of  members,  but  in 
the  case  of  annual  subscribers  five  payments  were  necessary  before  benefit 
could  be  claimed.  The  annual  payment  was  only  Is.  Benefit  was  on  a 
somewhat  lower  scale,  being  2s.  6d.  or  3s.  In  1794  the  capital  standing 
at  the  credit  of  the  Society  amounted  to  £400.  Tlie  statutory  meetings 
were  on  the  first  Friday  after  Barchan's  Day  and  the  first  Friday  of  June, 
N.S. 

The  Bond  of  Association  constituting  the  Kilbakchan  Weaver 
Society  was  signed  in  February,  1766,  by  fifty-eiglit  tradesmen  [opera- 
tives] and  others.  Payment  was  on  the  same  scale  as  in  the  General 
Society,  and  the  benefit  that  could  be  claimed  by  one  who  was  bedfast 
was  3s.  a  week,  and  by  one  confined  to  his  room,  2s.  until  recovery.  This 
Society  did  not  become  wealthy  like  its  sisters.  In  1794  Maxwell  says  it 
had  accumulated  but  little  capital  owing  to  excessive  burdens,  but  during 
the  twenty-eight  years  of  its  existence  it  had  been  of  great  use  in  reliev- 
ino-  distress.  The  dates  of  its  business  meetings  were  the  first  Fridays  of 
February  and  August,  N.S. 

The  charter  of  the  Masonic  Lodge  St.  Barchan  bears  the  date  1st 
November,  1784.  Its  number  on  the  roll  of  the  Grand  Lodge  was  origin- 
ally 208  ;  it  is  now  156.  The  office-bearers  whose  names  appear  in  the 
Charter  are  the  following: — James  Houston,  E.W.M. ;  James  Laird, 
D.M.  ;  Gaven  Herbertson,  S.W.  ;  Robert  Speir,  J.W.  ;  John  Honeyman, 
Sec.  ;  James  M'Kechney,  Treas.  ;  John  Clerk,  S.S.  ;  Matthew  Stewart, 
J.S.  ;  George  Davidson,  T. 


CHAPTEE    XL 

KlLBAKCHAN    BaROXIES    AND    THE    FaMILY    HISTORIES    OF    THE    BaRONS.' 


It  was  the  hereditarj'  ownership   of  land,  not  the  acquisition   of  title,  that  constituted  the  true 
aristocracy  to  which  the  common  people  looked  up. — Hill  Burton's  History  of  Si-otland,  viii.  p.  187. 

CtJNiNOHAME  OF  Craigend.s — Connection  with  tlie  Earl  of  Glencairn — The  Shake-Fork — Legends 
and  Tlieories — Pedigree  1160-1418  a.d. — Ciininghame-Montgomerie  feud — Slaughter  of  the 
second  Laird — Gabriel,  who  fell  at  Pinkie — The  fifth  Laird's  public  appointments — The 
Mayoralty  of  fees  and  Coronership — A  Divinity  Professor  at  Craigends — Craigends,  the 
Diarist,  in  the  Edinburgh  Tolbooth — Members  of  Parliament — Subsequent  lairds  :  Craufurd 
OF  AucHiNAMES — Connection  with  the  Earl  of  Loudoun — The  two  lances  in  Saltire — Founda- 
tion of  St.  Katharine's  Chapel — Robert,  who  fell  at  Flodden — The  seventh  Laird  as  a  neigh- 
bour— Gadgirth  as  a  tnlchan — The  last  will  and  testament  of  Lady  Auchinames — A  markige  de 
convenance — The  sixteenth  Laird  sells  Auchinames — Subsequent  history  :  Sempill  of  Castle 
Sempill — Connection  with  Kilbarchan — The  nine  Sempill.s  of  Elliestoun — Foundation  of  the 
Collegiate  Church  of  Sempill — The  Baronies  of  Craginfeauch  and  of  Sempill — The  Great  Lord 
Sempill — His  part  in  the  Cuninghame-Montgomerie  feud — The  siege  of  Castle  Sempill — The 
romantic  career  of  Colonel  William  Sempill — Sale  of  the  Sheriffdom — Sale  of  the  Lordship  of 
Castle  Sempill — The  twelfth  lord  at  Culloden — Subsequent  history. 


J. — Caninghame  of  Craigends. 

The  records  of  a  parisli  would  be  manifestly  incomplete  if  no  special 
notice  were  taken  of  the  old  and  historical  families  which  for  centuries 
have  owned  a  home  in  the  Parish  and  have  given,  generation  after  genera- 
tion, of  their  sons  to   share   in  the  deliberations  of  the  great   national 


"The  Parish  of  Kilbarchan  was  not  divided  into  Baronies,  but  there  were  three 
which  comprehended  a  large  part  of  the  Parish.  The  above  title  has  been  chosen  because  it  affords 
a  convenient  head  under  which  an  account  may  be  given  of  two  distinctively  Kilbarchan  families 
^^Cuninghame  and  Craufurd,  and  of  a  third — Sempill — which  was  also  intimately  connected  with 
Kilbarchan.  A  Barony  was  a  large  landowner's  possessions,  not  necessarily  in  one  Parish  nor 
even  in  one  County,  which  by  Royal  Charter  were  grouped  together  for  certain  civil  and  adminis- 
trative purposes.  The  Baron  was  the  landowner  or  the  superior  of  these  possessions,  who  in 
person  or  by  his  hailie  held  a  court  at  which  were  decided  most  of  the  pleas,  civil  and  criminal, 
which  arose  within  the  bounds  of  his  possessions  or  jurisdiction.  The  office  of  Baron  was  heredi- 
tary. If  the  Baron  landlord  sold  his  land  the  purchaser  became  the  Baron  if  he  obtained  a 
charter  of  Barony. 

187 


188  KILBARCHAX. 

councils  and  to  fight  and  die  for  their  country  on  the  field  of  battle.  Of 
such  Kilbarchan  families  not  the  least  distinguished  is  that  of  Cuning- 
HAME  OF  Craigends,  and  to  it  unquestionably  belongs  the  honour  of  the 
first  place,  not  solely  on  the  grounds  of  its  remarkable  antiquity  and  its 
survival  in  its  old  home  to  the  present  day,  but  because  of  the  intimate  and 
sympathetic  connection  its  members  have  ever  maintained  with  parochial 
affliirs. 

William  Cuninghame,  first  Laird  of  Craigends,  was  a  younger  son  of 
Alexander,  first  Earl  of  Glencairn,  and  became  proprietor  ot  Craigends  in 
1479.  If  the  Earldom  of  Glencairn  were  not  dormant,  the  Craigends 
family  would  be  properly  described  as  a  cadet  branch  of  the  premier  family, 
and  it  might  sufiice  for  us  to  trace  it  from  the  point  where  it  springs  from 
the  parental  stock.  Since  the  Earldom  is  at  present  in  abeyance,  how- 
ever, the  House  of  Craigends  becomes  entitled  to  a  very  much  longer 
pedigree  as  a  very  old,  if  not  indeed  the  oldest,  surviving  family  of  the 
name  of  Cuninghame. 

The  various  accounts  given  of  the  origin  of  the  Cuninghames  are 
manifestly  fanciful,  being  mere  theories  in  explanation  of  the  principal 
feature  in  their  shield — a  shake-fork.      Of  these  four  may  be  noted  : — 

(1.)  The  Shake-fork  is  said  to  be  an  imitation  of  the  episcopal  pall 
carried  by  the  See  of  Cantei'bury.  It  was  adopted  by  one  of  the  knights 
who  slew  Thomas  a  Becket  in  1170.  He  fled  to  Scotland,  took  up  his 
abode  in  the  district  of  Cunningham  (which  may  mean  King's  Dwelling) 
and  became  known  as  Neil  Cunningham.  Being  fortunate  enough  to  save 
the  life  of  King  William  the  Lion  he  was  ennobled,  received  a  grant  of 
the  lauds  of  Lambroughton,  and  became  ancestor  of  the  various  families  of 
the  name  of  Cuninghame. 

(2.)  Cuninghame  is  said  to  be  a  variation  of  Comyn,  and  the  Shake- 
fork  of  the  former  is  therefore  but  a  debased  and  inverted  representation 
of  "  the  two  extended  arms  holding  in  the  hands  a  sheaf  of  grain,"  which 
is  the  salient  feature  in  the  ai'ms  of  the  latter. 

(3.)  There  is  a  legend  that  on  one  occasion  when  Malcolm,  afterwards 
King  Malcolm  Canmore,  was  fleeing  from  the  faction  of  Macbeth  he  was 
compelled  to  seek  refuge  in  a  barn,  and  an  adherent — Malcolm,  son  of 
Friskin — concealed  the  fugitive  by  forking  straw  over  him.  When  in 
1058  Malcolm  became  King,  he  rewarded  his  preserver  by  creating  him 
Thane  of  Cunningham.  The  family  so  ennobled  adopted  as  their  name 
Cuninghame,  as  their  arms  a  Shake-fork,  and  as  their  motto  "  Over,  Fork 
Over." 


BARONS  AND  BARONIES— CPvAIGENDS.  189 

(4.)  According  to  another  authority,  the  Cuninghaiiies  held  the  office 
of  "Master  of  the  Horse  "  to  the  King  of  Scotland,  and  the  Shake-fork 
was  the  appropriate  emblem  of  this  office. 

The  earlier  pedigree,  accordiiig  to  Nisbet,  is  as  follows : — 

I. — Wernebald  [ab.  IIOO]  possessed  the  lauds  of  Kihnaurs. 

II. — Robert  [ab.  1162]  with  consent  of  Richinda,  his  spouse, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  Humphrey  Barclay  of  Garntilly,  mortified  the 
lands  of  Glenferchartland  to  the  Abbey  of  Arbroath — gave  the  village  of 
Cunningham,  the  Kirk  of  Kihnaurs,  and  half  a  carrucate  of  land  belong- 
ing to  the  said  kirk  to  the  Abbey  of  Kelso  ;  these  gifts  were  confirmed 
by  Richard  Morville,  Constable  of  Scotland. 

II  f. — Robert. 

IV. — Stephen  [ab.  1174],  one  of  the  hostages  given  to  Henry  II.  of 
England  for  King  William  the  Lion's  liberation. 

V. — Richard,  witness  to  a  charter  of  Allan  of  Galloway  in  favour  of 
Hugh  Crawford. 

VI.— Fergus  [ab.  1233]. 

VII. — Henry  or  Hervey  [ab.  1263]  was  confirmed  in  the  lands 
of  Kihnaurs  by  King  Alexander  III.  ;  he  behaved  with  great  bravery  at 
the  Battle  of  Largs. 

[VII.  b — Sir  William,  mentioned  by  some  about  1275.] 

VIIL— Edward  [         -1290]. 

IX. — GiEMORE  or  Gilbert  [ab.  1296]  renounced  the  league  with 
France  and  swore  allegiance  to  Edward  I.  of  England. 

X. — Sir  Robert  [ab.  1330],  though  he  had  formerly  sworn  fealty  to 
Edward  became  a  tbilower  of  the  Bruce,  and  from  him  obtained  a  charter 
to  the  lands  of  Lambroughtun. 

XL- — William  [ab.  1354]  proposed  as  one  of  the  hostages  for  King 
David  II.,  married  Eleanor  Bruce  and  was  for  a  time  known  as  Earl  of 
Carrick. 

XII. — Sir  William  [  -1418],  second  son  of  XL,  but  not  by 
Eleanor    Bruce,  was   known    as    Sir   William    Cunincdiam    of  Kilmaurs. 


190  '  KILBAKCHAN. 

He  acquired  in  1384  the  lands  of  Walterstoun  or  Waterstone  (in  Kilbar- 
chan)  from  William  Waterstone  of  that  ilk.  In  1405  he  married 
Margaret,  daughter  and  heiress  of  Sir  Robert  Dennistoun  of  Dennistoun, 
and  through  her  became  possessor  of  the  lands  of  Dennistoun  and  the 
Barony  of  Fiidaystone,  which  also  included  lands  now  in  Kilbarchan. 
Sir  William  founded  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Kihnaurs  [1403]  and 
granted  to  the  Abbey  of  Kilwinning  the  lands  of  Grange.  His  name 
occurs  as  witness  to  several  charters  of  King  Robert  H.  He  was  present 
at  the  head  of  his  vassals  at  the  Battle  of  Harlaw  [1411]. 

Xni. — PtOBERT  [1418-  ]  was  one  of  the  Barons  in  the  Parliament 
which  tried  the  Duke  of  Albany  and  his  sons  [1425].  In  1425  he 
married  Anna,  eldest  daughter  of  Sir  John  Montgomerie  (Lord  Ardrossan), 
and  obtained  with  her  as  dowry  a  life-rent  of  the  Bailiary  of  Cunningham 
and  of  the  Chamberlainship  of  Irvine,  hereditary  offices  which  had  belonged 
to  the  Montgomeries  since  1366  and  1370.  In  1448,  perhaps  on  Sir 
Robert  Cuningham's  death,  these  offices  were  bestowed  by  Crown  Charter 
on  Alexander,  eldest  son  of  the  first  Lord  Montgomerie.  The  Cuning- 
hames  felt  aggrieved  at  this,  and  hence  arose  the  Cuninghame-Mont- 
gomerie  feud,  which  lasted  for  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  in  spite  of 
royal  letters,  decrees  arbitral,  and  various  other  expedients  to  which 
recourse  was  had  to  reconcile  the  principals.  All  the  neighbouring  gentry 
took  sides  in  the  quarrel  ;  the  Sempills  were  with  the  Montgomeries,  the 
Craufurds  and  Maxwells  with  the  Cuningliame.s.  In  1488  Keriielaw,  a 
stronghold  of  the  Cuninghames,  was  razed  to  the  ground  by  Hugh  Lord 
Montgomerie,  and  in  the  course  of  the  next  thirty-five  years  no  fewer 
than  twenty-two  "  spulzies  "  or  raids  were  made  by  the  Cuninghames. 
In  1526  Cuningham  of  Auchenharvie,  and  two  years  later  Cuningham  of 
Waterstone  were  slain  by  Lords  Eglintoun  and  Sempill,  upon  which 
William  Master  of  Glencairn  raised  all  his  friends  and  allies  and  made  a 
furious  inroad  into  the  Montgomerie  lands.  They  destroyed  in  their  pro- 
gress not  only  houses  but  even  the  cornfields,  and  finally  burned  Eglintoun 
Castle  itself  with  all  the  ancient  records  of  the  family.  In  1533  William, 
second  laird  of  Craigends,  was  slain  by  some  of  Lord  Sempill's  adherents, 
and  thirty  years  later  his  grandson  was  wounded  by  the  Master  of  Mont- 
gomerie. In  1580  Montgomerie  of  Skelmorlie  slew  Maxwell  of  Stanelie, 
whose  mother  was  a  Cuninghame,  and  shot  a  brother  of  Glencairn's  at  his 
own  gate ;  in  revenge  for  this  Maxwell  of  Newark  slew  Skelmorlie  and 
bis  son  in  one  day.      In  1586  Hugh,  fourth  Earl  of  Eglintoun,  was   slain 


BAKOXS   AND  BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  191 

by  Cuninghame  of  Aket.  The  feud  did  not  come  to  an  end  until  1G09, 
when  the  principals  and  many  of  their  retainers  were  summoned  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  compelled  to  shake  hands  and  give  heavy  securities  that  they 
would  keep  the  peace. 

XIV. — Alexander  [  -14SS],  created  by  James  II.  Lord  Kil- 
maui's,  and  by  James  III.  Earl  of  Glencairn,  fell  at  the  Battle  of  Sauchie- 
burn  fighting  on  the  Royal  side.  He  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  Lord 
Lindsay;  the  second  son  of  this  marriage  was  William,  first  laird  of 
Craigends.  Possibly  "  Gilbert  Cwnyngara,  tenant  of  Auchynh  (Auchans)  " 
in  1460,  was  another  of  his  sons. 

This  family  failed  in  the  male  line  in  the  person  of  John,  fifteenth 
Earl  of  Glencairn,  who  died  at  Coats,  near  Edinburgh,  and  was  buried  in 
St.  Cuthbert's  Churchyard  in  179G. 

Craigends    Family. 

I. — William^  [1479-1520]'  received  from  his  father  the  lands  from 
which  the  family  takes  its  distinguishing  title.  "  William  Conyngham  of 
Ovyr  Cragayns  "  was  one  of  the  oversmen  called  in  by  the  original  arbiters 
to  settle  the  dispute  between  the  Burgh  of  Renfrew  and  the  Abbey  of 
Paisley  [1488]. 

Craigends  held  several  public  appointments  such  as  Comptroller  of 
the  Burgh  of  Dumbarton  and  Steward  of  the  Lordship  of  Kilmarnock. 
Probably  it  was  in  his  official  capacity  as  such  that  he  is  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  expenses  incuiTed  by  King  James  IV.  in  his  visits  to 
the  Highlands  : — 

1497-9. — Put  to  the  credit  of  '\\  illiam  Cmij'nghame  of  Craginche  in  part  payment  of 
the  expenses  of  the  King  at  Louch  Kynkerane  in  Kyntir,     ...  ...  £53     6s.     8d. 

and  in  part  payment  of   the  expense    of   the   King   at  the  Castle 

ofTerbart,   ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       £35     10s.     Od.» 

He  was  twice  married,  (1)  to  Elizabeth  Stewart  of  Arthurlie  (by  which 
marriage  he  acquired  the  lands  of  Arthurlie,  Partick,  and  Yoker  *),  and  had 
issue — 

'  Egliuton  Papers,  No.  5G. 

=  The  dates  within  square  brackets  are  the  year  of  succession  and  the  year  of  death. 
^Accounts  of  the  Lords  High  Treasurer  ;  also  Exchequer  Rolls. 

■•Charter   by  James    III.    to   Elizabeth    S.,   Domina   de   Park   and   William  C.    her 
(Craigends  Piipers). 


192  KILBARCHAN. 

1.   William,  who  succeeded. 

1.  Janet,  who  maiTied  (1)  Sir  Patrick   Houstouri   of  tliat  ilk,  and 

(2)  the  Laird  of  Newark. 

2.  ,  who  married,  the  Laird  of  Boquhannan. 

and  (2)  to  dame  Marion  (or  Mariote)  Auchinleck  (or  Affleck),  daughter  and 
heiress  of  Sir  John  Auchinleck  and  widow  of  Sir  John  Campbell  of 
Loudoun,  Sheriff  of  Ayr,  and  had  issue  a  son  David,  ancestor  of  the 
Cuninghams  of  Robertland,  who  though  he  did  not  succeed  to  his 
mother's  patrimony  (it  was  given  by  King  James  IV.  to  Boswell,  ancestor 
of  Dr.  Johnson's  biographer),  was  otherwise  provided  for.  David 
Cuningham  of  Barthenholm's  name  occurs  frequently  in  the  Exchequer 
Rolls  [1523-36]  in  connection  with  payments  made  to  him  by  the  Bailies 
of  Irvine  and  also  as  Steward  of  the  Lordship  of  Stewarton. 

The  fess  cheque  which  forms  part  of  the  Craigends  coat  of  arms  is 
owing  to  the  laird's  first  marriage  connecting  him  with  the  Stewarts. 
The  contract  of  his  second  marriage  is  preserved,  and  may  be  found  all 
the  more  interesting  because  it  deals  with  a  double  event,  the  heir  marry- 
ing Lady  Campbell's  daughter  by  her  first  husband. 

II. — William  [1520-33],  was  slain  along  with  his  servant,  Robert 
Allanesoun,  in  one  of  the  encounters  with  the  Montgomerie  faction. 
Strenuous  efforts  were  made  by  his  son,  Gabriel,  to  bring  the  guilt  home 
to  Lord  Sempill  and  his  adherents,  but  without  success.  Five  persons  of 
meaner  station  expiated  the  offence  on  the  scaffold  : — 

Nov.  12,  15.33.— Alexander  Pyncartoune  and  John  Bryntschele  convicted  of  art  and 
part  in  the  cruel  slaughter  of  the  Laird  of  Craganis  and  his  servant  BEHEADED. 

Feb.  23,  1534. — John  Stewart,  cousin  of  the  Laird  of  Barskib,  Mathew  Sympill 
servant  of  the  Laird  of  Stanlee,  and  James  Kirkwood,  dwelling  at  the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchane. 
convicted  as  ahove  BEHEADED,' 

The  actual  murderer  is  said  to  have  been  Gabriel  Sempill  of  Cathcart  and 
Ladymuir. 

The  second  laird  married  Geilis  (or  Egidia)  Campbell,  according  to 
liis  father's  contract.      There  was  issue  as  follow, — 

1.  Gabriel. 

2.  William,- for  whom  his  mother  acquired  the  lands  of  Cairncurran 

(Carruth)  from  John,  Lord  Lyle,  in  1544,  and  who  was  ancestor 
of  the  Cuninghames  of  Cairncurran. 

1  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials.  -  Renwick's  Glasij.  Portocvh,  Pt.  ii.  No.  301. 


Ol.h    HorsK   OF   CKAiGKXDS, 


CKAIGIIXDS^ 


BAROXS  AXD   BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  193 

3.  Robert,    who    was    ancestor    of    the    Cunuighames    of   Baidland, 

Auchinharvie  and  Southook  ;  he  married  Christian  Park,  and 
their  daughter  Janet  married  George  Houstoun,  and  from 
them  are  descended  the  Houstouns  of  Park.^ 

4.  A  son.  of  whom  nothing  is  recorded. 

1.  Janet,  who  married  David  Stewart  of  Castlemilk. 

2.  Beatrix,  who  married  John  Porterfield,  first  laird  of  Duchil. 

3.  Catherine,  who  married  (1)  the  Laird  of  Bavine   and  (2)  John 

"Wallace  of  Eldei-slie. 

4.  Geillis,  who  married  John  Craufurd  of  Auchinames. 
5  Marion,  who  married  George  Maxwell  of  Newark. 

Another  authorlt}^  mentions  marriage  connections  with  the  Lairds  of 
Whiteford  (Quhytford)  and  Stainlie,  but  it  is  uncertain  whether  the 
brides  were  other  daughters  or  that  some  of  the  above  made  second 
marriages. 

III.— Gabriel  [1533-47],  fell  at  the  Battle  of  Pinkie  [10th  Sept., 
1547].  One  whose  name  was  very  nearly  the  same  leased  Auchans  from 
Paisley  Abbey  : — 

Mar.  5,  1'539. — Auchynche  is  let  to  Gilbert  Cn-ynghame  of  Craganys  at  a  rent  payable 
to  us  and  our  successors  of  i  merks  with  2  doz.  fowls  and  other  services  use  and  wont. 

He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  William  Livingston  of  Kilsyth  and 
grand-daughter  of  Sir  Duncan  Forrester  of  Garden,  Comptroller  of  the 
Household  to  King  James  IV.,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  William. 

2.  James,  ancestor  of  the  Cuninghames  of  Auchinyards. 

1.  Janet,  who  married  Sir  Patrick  Houstoun  of  Houston. 

2.  Elizabeth,  who  married  Andrew  Stirling  of  Portnallan  and  Law. 

Possibly  Robert  Stirling,  Minister  of  Kilbarchan  [1593-1605], 
was  a  son  or  grandson  of  this  lady. 

According  to  C.  K.  Sharpe's  Genealogy  of  the  Craigends  Family,  the  elder 
daughter  married  the  Laird  of  Fordoun  and  the  younger  the  Laird  of 
Crogarnock  ;  of  course  ladies  who  have  the  misfortune  to  be  widowed 
sometimes  marrv  a  second  time. 


1  Craigends  Papers.     Charters  by  John,  Earl  of  Marr  and  Lord  Erskine. 

a2 


194  KILBARCHAN. 

IV. — William^  [1547-68],  was  one  of  twenty  Earls,  Lords  and 
Barons  who  signed  a  bond  to  recognise  Henry  Lord  Darnley  and  Mary  as 
Sovereigns  [Sept.  5,  1565].  He  was  cautioner  to  the  Privy  Council 
for  the  appearance  of  John  Wallace  of  Cragy,  and  when  that  gentle- 
man did  not  appear  Cuninghame  received  notice  to  produce  him." 

He  married  Margaret  Cunningham  of  Cunninghamhead,  and  had 
issue  : — 

1.  Alexander  (born  1562). 

2.  William,  a  Writer  to  the  Signet. 

3.  John  of  Rawis,  who  was  presented  to  the  Vicarage  of  Kilbarchan 

in  1585. 

4.  Gabriel. 

1.  Grizle,  who  married  Lord  Lamington  of  Lich. 

2.  Elizabeth,  who  married  the  goodman  of  Grange. 

3.  Janet. 

On  being  left  a  widow,  Margaret  Cunningham  married  (2)  the  Laird   of 
Inchmarten,  and  being  again  widowed,  (3)  Paul  Dog  of  Dunrobiu. 

V.^ — Alexander  [1568-1615],  like  the  rest  of  the  nobility  and  gentry 
of  the  time,  profited  to  some  extent  by  the  overthrow  of  the  old  Church 
at  the  Reformation — obtaining  from  John  Hamilton,  Abbot  of  Paisley, 
"  in  return  for  sums  of  money  paid  in  a  time  of  difficulty  "  the  lands  of 
Auchynis'  (Auchans)  and  from  Master  John  Makquhin,  the  Vicar,  the 
church  lands  of  the  vicarage  of  Kilbarchan';  he  and  his  cousin,  Cun- 
ningham of  Ptobertland,  were  tacksmen  of  the  teind  of  Kilmaurs  in  1599 
and  for  several  succeeding  years.'  The  explanation  of  these  transactions, 
so  utterly  impossible  to-day,  is  that  the  Ptoman  Catholic  clergy  at  the 
time  of  the  Pieformation,  seeing  what  was  coming,  made  haste  to  make 
the  best  provision  they  could  for  themselves,  by  alienating  church  lands  on 
long  leases  or  feus,  receiving  for  themselves  so  much  money  down.  The 
property  market  was  at  the  time  glutted  on  account  of  this  policy,  and 
lands  and  teinds  could  be  had  on  very  easy  terms. 

It  appears  that  he  was  known  by  the  unique  title  of  "  Laird  of  Kil- 
barchan," and  that  the  Baron's  court  at  which  he  presided  was  held  at 

1  Renwick's  Glasg.  Protocols,  Pt.  ii.,  Nos.  300,  303,  701,  804,  1331-3,  1420. 

2  Reg.  of  Privy  Conn.,  Mar.  24,  1564.  3  Reg.  Mag.  Sig.,  iii.,  No.  2411. 
4  Reg.  Mag.  Sig.,  iii.,  No.  2412.                5  Paterson's  SempiUs  of  Beltrees. 


BARONS  AND   BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  195 

Kilbarchan.^  From  the  title  of  one  of  Robert  Sempill's  (Beltrees)  poems, 
"  Epitaph  on  Sanny  Briggs,  nephew  to  Halabie  Simpson,  and  butler  to  the 
Laird  of  Kilbarchan,"  we  conclude  that  the  nephew,  and  perhaps  the  more 
famous  uncle  also,  were  retainers  of  the  Craigends  family. 

Tliis  laird  held  several  public  appointments.  As  the  local  representa- 
tive of  the  Chancellor  (Lauderdale)  he  denounced  Cunningham  of 
Southerick  rebel  [13  Aug.,  151)0]  ;  he  was  one  of  the  Commissioners  for 
Renfrewshire  [3  Nov.,  IGOO];  he  was  one  of  those  charged  with  the 
duty  of  bringing  William  Montgomerie,  a  writer  (possibly  of  Weitlands), 
who  was  accused  of  manslaughter,  to  the  Edinburgh  Tolbooth  [13  July, 
1609];  and  he  is  mentioned  as  one  of  the  fifteen  Justices  of  Peace  for 
Renfrewshire  [1610-5].-  It  is  likely  that  he  held  the  post,  which  his  son 
afterwards  held,  of  "  Coroner  and  Mayor  of  fees  for  the  Western  Ward  of 
Strathgryffe  and  the  Upper  Ward  of  Renfrew." 

It  may  have  been  in  the  discharge  of  some  of  his  public  duties  that 
he  was  compelled  to  make  at  least  a  show  of  trying  to  bring  to  justice  the 
mmxlerers  of  the  Earl  of  Eglinton,  and  so  drew  down  upon  himself  the 
animosity  of  his  own  faction  :— 

Mar.  8,  1585-6. — Bond  by  James  Earl  of  Glencairn  to  keep  unhurt  and  unpursued 
Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigans.' 

Sept.  17,  1589. — Bond  of  Caution  by  William  Glen  of  Bar  for  James,  Eail  of  Glen- 
cairn, that  he  will  not  harm  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craiganis,  James  Millair,  Johnne 
Millair,  Johne  Young,  —  Wilsoun,  Patrik  Fishear,  John  Wattersoun  tenants  to  the  said 
Alexander  in  the  lands  of  Manniswra,  Halhill,  Lyntijuhyte,  Knappis  and  Mylne  of 
Lochir.' 

Alexander  had  many  other  enemies,  for  no  fewer  than  fifty-two  persons 
(Mures,  Howies,  and  Boyds)  were  in  1594  bound  over  not  to  harm  him.'* 
In  1572  when  Robert  Lord  Sempill  was  made  Lieutenant  General  and 
Justice  of  Lanark  and  Ptenfrew,  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends, 
and  Hew  Cuninghame  of  Waterstoun,  were  expressly  exempted  from  liis 
lordship's  jurisdiction,  probably  on  the  plea  that  they  could  not  expect 
justice  at  his  hands." 

Justice  of  Peace  though  he  was,  there  is  evidence  that  he  did  not 
scruple  to  execute  private  vengeance  on  those  to  whom  he  bore  a 
grudge  :— 


Paterson's  Semjiills  of  BeUrecs.  '-'  Ileg.  of  Priv.  Couit. 

*  Ibid.  =  Ibid.  « Ibid. 


19G  KILBAECHAN. 

Oct.  11,  1591. — Robert  Hamilton  of  Eglishmanchane  security  in  2000  merks  that 
Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  will  not  harm  "William  C'uningham  of  Tourlandis. 

Jan.  6,  1592-3. — John  Quhytford  of  that  ilk  cautioner  in  X2000  that  Craigends  will 
not  barm  James  Barclay,  servant  to  Cuningham  of  Glengarnock. 

June  8,,  1601. — Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craiganis  as  principal,  and  Johnne  Wallace 
of  Meaneford  as  surety  in  2000  merks  not  to  harm  PauU  Dog  of  Dunrobene.^ 

The  ]ast  entry  shows  that  the  Laird  resented  his  mother's  third  matri- 
monial adventure  and  alarmed  his  step-father  by  threats. 

In  this  iaird's  time  the  great  Cuninghame-Montgomerie  feud  came 
to  an  end  : — 

Mar.  10,  1598-9. — Certain  individuals  of  hoth  factions,  among  them  Craigends,  are  charged 
to  appear  before  the  King  and  Council  to  underlie  such  orders  as  shall  be  given  them  for 
keeping  gude  reull  and  quietnes  amangis  thame. 

Jy.  10,  1608. — Some  variance  having  fallen  out  between  Robert  Lord  Sempill  and 
Alex.  Cuninghame  of  Craigens  there  is  order  to  charge  both  parties  under  pain  of  rebellion 
to  subscribe  within  twenty-four  hours  some  form  of  mutual  assurance  as  shall  be  presented 
to  them  to  endure  until  Aug.  1,  1609. 

Feb.  28,  1509. — Certain  individuals  of  both  factions,  among  them  Craigends  and  his  brother 
Gabriel,  are  commanded  to  come  to  Edinburgh  on  March  14  and  15. 

Mar.  16,  1609. — Before  the  decree  was  made  known  it  was  required  of  parties  that 
they  forgive  one  another  for  all  "  bloodis  slauchteris  and  mutillationis."  They  consented 
and  in  public  audience  exchanged  hands  declaring  "  their  chopping  of  handis  sould  be  als 
sufficient  for  all  those  on  ather  side  quho  were  absent  and  were  gultie  of  ony  of  the  said 
bloodis  as  gif  they  were  present  and  had  choppit  handis  with  thame." 

The  lands  iu  Renfi'ewshire  to  which  this  laird  obtained  sasine  from 
the  superior  are  as  follows": — Wester  Craganis  with  tower,  manor,  and 
yards,  Caymhill,  Manniswraye,  Lyntquhite,  Lochirside,  Lochirmylne,  £10 
fron:  the  lands  of  Waterstoune,  Nethir  Dennestoune,  Kiiappis  with  mill, 
and  3^  merk  land  O.E.  of  Waterstone,  occupied  by  John  Black,  Malcolm 
Patersoun,  William  Roger,  Ptobert  Conyghame.  He  also  had  a  house  in 
Glasgow  on  the  east  side  of  Dryegait.^ 

He  married  (1)  in  1583  Grissel,  relict  of  the  Laird  of  Mochrim,  but 
this  lady  died  without  issue  ;  and  (2)  Lady  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
William,  sixth  Earl  of  Glencairn,  and  widow  of  James  Craufurd  of 
Auchinames.  By  the  second  marriage  he  had  three  sons,  William  (born 
1585),  Alexander,  and  James. 


Rey.  of  Privy  Conn.  =  Renwick's  Glas.  Protocols,  ii.  No.  1597,  '  Ibid.  No.  2837. 


BAKONS   xVND  BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  197 

VI. — William  [1G  15-47],  though  in  later  hfe  he  occupied  puhlic 
positions  of  importance,  began  the  administration  of  his  patrimony  with 
commendable  humility  and  caution.  On  being  required  to  find  caution 
to  Sir  Ludovick  Houstoun  and  John  Mudie,  his  tenant,  under  lawburrows 
for  3000  merks,  he  complained  that  the  sum  was  excessive  for  one  wlio  is 
"  bot  ane  meane  gentilman,  and  is  nather  ane  lord  nor  ane  grite  barromi ;" 
and  he  got  his  pledge  modified  to  1000  merks  as  a  freeholder  [4  Jy.,  1620]. 
A  few  months  later  on  having  to  find  caution  to  Patrick  Craufurd  of 
Auchinames  in  2000  mei'ks  he  reiterates  his  complaint,  and  the  pledge  is 
modified  to  £1000,  which  was  the  same  as  "ane  lord  or  grite  ban-oun  " 
[21  Nov.,  1620].^ 

By  a  charter  of  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales  and  Baron  Renfrew 
[20  Nov.,  1621],  the  Craigends  possessions  were  incorporated  into  a  free 
barony,  and  the  Place  of  Craigends  appointed  to  be  the  principal 
messuage.  In  1622  Craigends  already  occupied  the  post  of  Coroner  and 
Mayor  of  fees  for  the  Western  Ward  of  Strathgrylfe  and  the  Upper  Ward  of 
Renfrew.  Between  1624-7  he  was  one  of  those  appointed — to  take  on 
trial  John  Edmond,  Kilbirnie,  a  thief  who  was  discovered  in  the  "  Plaice 
of  Gairtnes  with  a  pocketful  of  irnis  and  fals  keyis  ....  " — to  put 
in  execution  the  Acts  of  Parliament  prohibiting  the  destruction  of  "rid 
fishe,  smoltis  and  frye  of  salmond,"  and  to  apprehend  Stewart  of 
Pitchevles  for  slaying  two  brothers.  Maxwells  of  Newark." 

In  1643  Craigends  and  John  Shaw  of  Greenock  were  sent  by  the 
barons  and  freeholders  of  Renfrewshire  to  represent  them  in  the  Scottish 
Parliament. 

He  married  (l)  Elizabeth  Stewart  of  Castle  Milk,  a  second  cousin,  by 
whom  he  had  issue — 

1.  William,  who  was  born  in  1603,  but  died  before  his  father,  having 

married,  however,  and  left  issue. 

2.  Archibald,  who  acquired  the  lands  of  Craigbet,  Torr  and  Threiply, 

and  married  Isobel  Craufurd  of  Kilbirnie. 

3.  Gabriel,  who  was  educated  at  St.  Andrews  University  and  licensed 

by  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley  [Jy.  5,  1638]  and  was  Minister  of 
Moniabrock  (Kilsyth);  he  married  Jean  Blair  of  Blair. 

4.  James,  of  Bridge-end,  Calder,  and  Langyairds.      . 


^  Hey.  of  Privy  Conn. 


128  KILBARCHAN. 

1.  Margaret,  who  married  William  Napier  of  Merchistou. 

2.  Janet,  who  married  John  Cranfurd  of  Craufurdland. 

3.  Agnes,  who  married  (1)  John  Hamilton,  (2)  Wallace  of  Ferguslie. 

4.  Jeane,  who  married  James  Roherton,  commissary  of  Hamilton. 

5.  Elizabeth,  who  married  Sir  John  Cunningham  of  Gilbertfield. 
and  (2)  Annas  Chisholm  of  Cromlix,  widow  of  John  Napier  of  Merchiston, 
the  inventor  of  Logarithms.      There  was  a   triple   marriage  connection 
between  the  Napiers  and  the  family  of  Craigends — a  daughter  of  this  lady 
being  married  to  Williaui,  the  heir,  and  a  son  to  Margaret  Cuninghame. 

William  Cuninghame,  younger  of  Craigends,  married  Elizabeth 
Napier  of  Merchiston,  and  left  issue, — 

1.  Alexander  (born  1626). 

2.  William,  Laird  of  Bootstoun,  who  married  Anna  Montgomerie  of 

Skelmorlie. 

3.  John,  who  went  to  County  Antrim. 

4.  Archibald,  merchant  in  Dantzic. 

1.  Jean,  who  married  John  Maxwell  of  Dargavel. 

2.  Anne,  who  married  (1)  John  Shaw  of  Bargarren,^  and  (2)  James 

Hamilton  of  Overshiels. 

3.  Elizabeth,  who  married   (1)  John   Maxwell  of  Southbar,  and  (2) 

James  Brisbane  of  Selvieland  (ob.  1636). 

Vn. — Alexander  [1647-90],  succeeded  his  grandfather.  He  was  a 
good  churchman,  and  suffered  during  the  persecution  of  the  Presby- 
terians [1662-88].  Having  contributed  through  Sir  John  Cochran  of 
Ochiltree,  son  of  the  Earl  of  Diindonald,  to  the  necessities  of  Archibald, 
Earl  of  Argyll,  then  an  exile  in  Holland,  he  was  apprehended.  His  son 
also  was  apprehended,  simply  because  he  had  been  seen  in  conversation 
with  Alexander  Porterfield  of  Duchal,  who  was  suspected  of  disloyalty. 
Both  were  imprisoned  in  the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  and  an  exorbitant 
fine  was  demanded  of  them.  On  the  11th  September,  1685,  the  Laird  of 
Craigends,  yoiniger,  "  is  allowed  to  be  liberate  from  prison  under  a  bond 
of  i^4000  Stg.  to  re-enter  1st  Nov.  "  ;  and  on  8th  November  he  was 
again  "  liberate  to  re-enter  1st  Jan.  next  that  he  may  attend  on  his 
affairs  in  the  session  and  use  means  for  procuring  his  fine."  - 

1  Ante,  p.  Ul.  =  Wodrow's  Hisiorij,  IV.,  pp.  136,  141-5,  212. 


BARONS  AND  BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  19!) 

A  celebrated  divine  of  the  period,  Professor  David  Dickson,  on  one 
occasion  visited  at  Craigends,  and  James  Stirling  records  the  gist  of  his 
conversation.  "He  (the  Laird),"  he  says,  "told  me  that  he  (Mr.  Dick- 
son) marked  to  him  how  such  a  tree  or  plant  was  budding  now,  and 
blossoming,  and  after  some  time  it  would  fade  ;  and  so  he  would  discourse 
to  the  young  laird  of  the  vanity  of  earthly  things  ;  so  that  he  was  made 
to  admire  the  way  Mr.  Dickson  had  with  him,  it  was  so  pleasant  and 
gaining.  He  told  him  he  heard  a  good  report  of  him,  that  he  was  a 
seeker  of  God  in  his  family,  and  entreated  him  to  hold  on  his  way,  for 
that  would  be  his  greatest  glory  and  renown."  ' 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  he  married  his  cousin  Janet  Cuninghame  of 
Auchinyards,  and  left  issue — 

1.  William  (born  1G4G). 

1.  Margaret. 

2.  Elizabeth,  who  married  George  Houstoun  of  Johnstone  in  1671. 

3.  Rebecca,  who  married  John  Hamilton  of  Grange. 

4.  Janet,  who  married  John  Alexander  of  Blackhouse. 

5.  Marion,  who  married  Alexander  Porterfield  of  Fulwood. 

6.  Anna  (ob.  Jy.  28,  1694). 

Vni. — William  [1690-1727],  is  the  Kilbarchan  gentleman  who  has 
been  considered  worthy  of  having  a  chapter  devoted  to  himself"  On  four 
occasions  [1689-95]  he  was  elected  by  the  barons  and  freeholders  of  Ren- 
frewshire to  represent  them  in  the  Scottish  Parliament.  Apparently  he 
was  more  than  two  centuries  in  advance  of  his  time,  for  he  considered  that 
members  of  Parliament  should  be  paid  for  their  services.  The  bill  he 
tendered  to  his  constituents,  which  is  extant,  is  dated  "  Craigends,  Oct. 
26,  1696."  It  appears  he  had  spent  upon  his  Parliamentary  duties  366 
days,  and  for  each  day  he  charges  £5  Scots.  This  was  certainly  not 
extortionate,  for  pulpit  supply  at  Killellan  about  this  time  cost  £4 
Scots  a  Sunday.  The  total  sum,  £1830  Scots,  he  apportions  amongst 
the  34  heritors  of  the  county  according  to  their  respective  valuations. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  he  I'eceived  payment.  He  was  one  of  the 
commissioners  appointed  in  connection  with  the  case  of  Christian  Shaw, 
"  to  interrogate  and  imprison  persons  suspected  of  witchcraft "  [19  Jan., 
1697]  and  "  to  take  trial  of,  judge  and  do  justice  upon  the  suspected 
witches,  to  sentence  the  guilty  to  be  burned  or  otherwise  executed  to 

1  Wodrow's  Analeda.  -  Ante,  pp.  105-117. 


200  KILBARCHAN. 

death"  [5  Ap.,  1697y  It  was  he  or  his  father  who  presided  at  the 
meetino;'  of  heritors  at  the  Kirktoune  of  Kilbarchan  in  1688  which  re- 
solved to  erect  a  kirk  or  meeting-house  for  Presbyterian  service,  and  to 
Craigends  was  committed  "  the  chairg  and  oversight  of  the  heall  work.^ 
He  was  still  alive,  though  probably  it  was  his  son  who  attended  the 
meetings  and  signed  the  documents,  wlien  Kilbarchan  Church  was 
rebuilt  in  1724.  When  Kilbarchan  was  erected  into  a  Burgh  of  Barony 
in  1704,  the  office  of  Chief  Magistrate  fell  to  him,  and  he  was  one  of 
those  who  were  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  making  up  the  Poll  Tax  Roll 
for  Kilbarchan. 

He  married  (1 )  the  Honourable  Anne,  daughter  of  Lord  Ruthven  and 
relict  of  Sir  William  Cuningham  of  Cunninghamhead,  and  by  her  had  no 
issue;  and  (2)  Christian  Colquhoun  of  Luss,  by  whom  he  had  issue — 

1.  Alexandei',  born  1690. 

2.  William,  merchant  in  Glasgow  and  in  Jamaica  (ob.    1742),  who 

married  (1)  Martha  Robison,  by  whom  he  had  a  daughter  Mar- 
garet, and  (2)  Agnes,  sister  of  Sir  James  Campbell  of  Houston. 

3.  John. 

4.  James,  who  died  unmarried  in  1  744. 

1.  Lilias,'*  who  married  Thomas  Wallace  of  Cairnhill. 

2.  Janet,  who  died  unmarried. 

3.  Magdalen,  who  married  Mungo  Campbell  of  Netherplace. 

4.  Elizabeth,  who  married  Gabriel  Porterfield  of  Hapland. 

IX. — Alexander  [1727-42]  represented  the  County  in  Parliament 
for  at  least  eight  years  (1734-42).  Unlike  his  father  he  bound  and 
obliged  himself  "  to  serve  in  Parliament  for  the  shire  gratis  and  without 
fee." 

He  married  (1)  Anne,  daughter  of  Sir  John,  the  last  Houstoun  of 
Houston,  and  by  her  had  issue — 


Willi 


am. 


1.  Ciiristian,  who  married  Boyd  Porterfield  of  Duchal. 

2.  Margaret. 


1  Witches  of  Rci,frewshh-e,  pp.  125,  131.  2  Arde,  p.  104. 

3  This  is  probably  the  lady  whose  name  survives  in  connection  with  the  Kilb.irchan  Summer 
Fair— Lily's  Day — which  falls  on  the  third  Tuesday  of  July,  O.S. 


BARONS  AND   BARONIES— CRAIGENDS.  201 

3.  Lilias. 

4.  Joanna,  wlio  married  Claud  Alexander  of  Newton. 

and  (2)  Kathei-ine,  sister  of  Sir  James  Campbell  of  Houston  and  relict  of 
Provost  Aird  of  Glasgow. 

X. — William  [1742-G5]  was  Captain  in  Colonel  Leigh's  Regiment 
and  served  with  it  in  Holland.  On  succeeding  he  found  the  family  estate 
irretrievably  embarrassed  through  his  father  having  become  boinid  for  Sir 
John  Houstoun's  debts.  The  estate  was  therefore  judicially  sold,  and  was 
bought  by  his  stepmother,  Katherine  Campbell,  who  entailed  it  on  the 
heirs,  male  and  female,  of  her  late  husband,  and  iiiiling  these  on  the  heirs 
of  William,  Earl  of  Glencairn. 

The  Laird  afterwards  added  the  two  Fultons  and  Park  of  Erskine  to 
his  property.  He  was  a  man  of  considerable  enterprise,  and  lived  at  a 
time  of  genei'al  industrial  and  agricultural  progress.  According  to 
William  Semple  he  worked  the  coal  and  lime  on  his  estate,  opened 
quarries,  planted  trees,  and  enclosed  his  land.  He  married  his  cousin 
Margaret,  daughter  of  his  uncle  William  and  Martha  Robison,  and  had 
three  sons — Alexander,  William,  and  John — who  each  lived  to  be  Laird 
of  Craigends. 

XL — Alexander  [17G5-90],  in  addition  to  the  Renfrewshire  estates 
seems  to  have  owned  rich  properties  in  the  West  Indies.  He  continued 
the  improvements  which  his  father  had  begun.  William  Semple,  who 
wrote  in  1782,  gives  a  glowing  account  of  the  orchard  and  garden,  the 
terraced  walks  and  lime  tree  avenue  then  being  laid  out  at  Craigends. 
It  is  interesting  to  know  that  at  this  time  five  acres  within  the  policies 
were  under  a  tobacco  crop. 

He  married  Anne,  daughter  of  William  Macdowall  of  Garthland  and 
Castle  Semple,  and  had  one  son,  William,  who  died  in  infancy. 

XII. — William  [1790-2],  brother  of  the  above,  was  a  Captain  in 
the  7Gth  Regiment,  and  died  unmarried  in  Jamaica,  while  preparing  to 
come  to  Craigends. 

XIII.— John  [1792-1822],  brother  of  the  above  (born  Feb.  5,  1759), 
was  a  Captain  in  the  94th  Regiment. 

He  married  (l)  Frances,  daughter  of  Sir  James  Maxwell  of  Pollock, 
and    by   her  had   no  issue,  and   (2)  Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  William 

b2 


202  KILBARCHAN. 

Cuningham  of  Robeitland  and  widow  of  Captain  Maxwell  of  Pollock,  and 
by  her  had  issue  as  follows  : — 

1.  William. 

2.  Alexander. 

3.  John,  a  merchant  in  London,  who  married  Rosa  Cuningham. 

4.  Boyd  Alexander,  Australia,  who  married  Mary   Wilkinson,  and 

had    issue    four    sons    and  seven  daughters,   of  whom    one  is 
the  present  Countess  of  Eglinton,  and  another  is  Mrs.  Pearson. 

5.  Robert  Charles,  a  settler  in  New  South  Wales. 

1.  Ann  Colquhoun,  who  married   (1)  Dr.  Monteith,  and   (2)  in   1831, 

John,  seventh  Duke  of  Argyll. 

2.  Margaret,  who  married  in    1833   Roger  Duke  of  Newpark,  Co. 

Sligo,  and  had  four  sons  and  three  daughters. 

3.  Frances  Maxwell,  who  married  John  Lennox  Kincaid  Lennox  of 

Woodside,  and  had  one  son  and  three  daughters. 

4.  Lilias,  who  married  in  1831  William  Bonar  of  Easter  Warrieston 

and  had  one  daughter. 

5.  Janet  Lucretia,  who  died  in  childhood. 

6.  Williamina,  who  married  Rev.  Dr.  Main  of  Edinburgh,  and   died 

Oct.  21,  1887. 

XIV. — William  [1822-52]  was  much  given  to  antiquarian  pur- 
suits. He  read,  arranged,  and  catalogued  the  family  papers  and  wrote 
a  monograph  on  his  family. 

XV. — William  [1852-58],  son  of  the  above,  entered  the  Army  in 
1855  as  Lieutenant  in  the  11th  Hussars,  and  retired  in  1872,  having 
served  in  India.  He  was  appointed  Major  in  the  Royal  Renfrew  Militia 
in  1874,  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  1881,  Honorary-Colonel  4th  Butt.  A.  & 
S.  H.  in  1890. 

He  married  Mary  Georgiana  Oswald  of  Auchincruive,  and  has  issue — 

1.  William  John,  b.  1879. 

2.  Gabriel. 

3.  George  Oswald  Victor. 

1.  Margaret  Georgiana. 

2.  Frances  Mirabel. 

3.  Mary  Williamina. 

4.  Grizle. 


BAEONS  AND  BARONIES— AUCHINAMES.  203 

Colonel  Cuninghame  sold  the  estate  to  his  uncle,  Alexander  Cuning- 
hame,  in  1858,  and  resides  now  at  Belmont,  Ayr. 

XVI. — Alexander  [1858-G6],  uncle  of  the  above,  had  the  old 
mansion  house  with  its  thick  walls  and  secret  recesses  taken  down  and 
the  present  stately  building  erected. 

He  married  Janet,  daughter  of  James  M'Hardy  of  Glenboig,  and  had 
issue — 

1.  John  Charles. 

2.  Alexander  William,  who  died  in  infancy. 

XVII. • — John  Charles  [1866-  ],  represents  the  27th  generation 
from  Warnebaldus,  who  flourished  in  the  time  of  Edgar,  King  of  Scotland, 
and  William  Rufus,  King  of  England,  the  13th  from  the  first  laird  of 
Craigends,  the  12th  from  the  laird  slain  in  the  great  feud,  the  6th  from 
Alexander  who  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tolbooth  of  Edinburgh,  and  the  5th 
from  William,  the  diarist. 

He  married,  in  1901,  his  cousin  once  removed,  Alison,  daughter  of 
the  late  Alexander  L.  Pearson,  and  grand-daughter  of  Commander  Hugh 
Pearson,  R.N.,  Kippenross  Castle,  Stirlingshire. 

The  arms  of  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  are  : — Quarterly,  1st  and  4th 
ar.,  a  shade  fork  sa.  ;  2nd  and  3rd  or,  a  fess  cheque  az.  and  ar. 
Crest. — An  unicorn's  head  couped  ar.,  horned  and  mained  or.  and  gorged 
with  a  collar  cheque  ar.  and  az.     Motto. — So  Fork  Forward. 


Il.—Cranfurd  of  Auchinames. 

The  family  of  Craufurd  of  Auchinames  was  connected  with  Kilbar- 
chan  for  about  four  hundred  years.  They  are  descended  from  Reginald  de 
Craufurd,  Sheriff"  of  Ayr,  who  about  the  year  1200,  married  Margaret, 
daughter  and  heiress  of  James  de  Loudoun,  and  received  a  grant  of 
the  barony  of  Loudoun  in  the  time  of  William  the  Lion.  Sir  Regi- 
nald died  in  1226,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Sir  Hugh  who  died 
in  1246,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  the  second  Sir  Hugh.  The 
daughter  of  the  second  Sir  Hugh  was  the  mother  of  Sir  William  Wallace 
of  Elderslie,  the  patriot.  The  fourth  Craufurd  of  Loudoun  was  named  Sir 
Reginald.  He  was  murdered  at  Ayr  in  1297,  leaving  a  son,  Reginald 
also,  whose  daughter  and  heiress,  Susan,  married  Sir  Duncan  Campbell  of 
Lochawe  and  Redcastle,  from  whom  the  Earl  of  Loudoun  is  descended. 


204  KILBAECHAN. 

I. — The  first  Craufurd  of  Auchinames,  originally  known  as  Sir 
Reginald  Craufurd  of  Crosbie,  was  the  second  son  of  the  first  Sir 
Hugh  Craufurd,  Baron  of  Loudoun  and  Sheriff  of  Ayr.  For  his  services 
at  the  Battle  of  Bannockburn  he  was  rewarded  by  King  Robert  the  Bruce 
with  a  grant  of  tiie  barony  of  Auchinames  and  with  the  privilege  of  adding 
to  his  shield  two  lances  in  saltire  [ab.  1320]. 

11. — He  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Reginald,  whose  name  appears 
as  witness  to  a  charter  by  Robert,  the  High  Steward  [ab.  1358]. 

HI. — Thomas^  [ab.  1401],  by  a  charter  confirmed  by  King  Robert 
III.  at  Arneall,  24th  October,  1401,  founded  and  endowed  the  altar  and 
chapel  of  St.  Katharine  in  the  graveyard  of  Kilbarchan,  the  patronage  of 
which,  vested  in  himself,  his  heirs  and  successors,  was  a  privilege  much 
prized  and  jealously  guarded  by  the  family.  "  Thoma  de  Crawfurd  de 
Hauinnamys "  appears  as  witness  to  the  deed  by  which  William  Urri 
resigned  his  rights  to  the  lands  of  Fulton  in  favour  of  Paisley  Abbey  in 
1409.^  The  family  possessions  at  this  time  were  as  follows: — the  £12 
lands  O.E.  of  Auchinames,  the  £14  land  of  Corsbie,  the  £6  land  of 
Manock  and  Gills,  the  5  merk  land  of  Auldmuir,  and  the  5  merk  land  of 
Whiteside.^ 

IV. — Archibald  [ab.  1427],  succeeded  in  terms  of  a  charter  con- 
firmed by  King  James  I.  in  1427,  in  which  there  is  mention  of  the  Third- 
part  of  Achinames  and  the  third  part  of  the  mill  thereof  He  married 
Mai-garet,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  Sir  William  Douglas  of  Piercetoun 
and  had  two  sons,  Robert  the  heir,  and  Thomas,  ancestors  of  the 
Craufurds  of  Thirdpart. 

V. — Robert  ^[  -1513],  was  twice  married — (I)  to  Margaret 
Douglas,  sister  to  Archibald,  the  great  Earl  of  Angus,  who  married  the 
widowed  queen  of  James  IV.,  the  daughter  of  Henry  VII.  of  England. 
Of  this  marriage  there  was  born  a  daughter,  Margaret,  who  married  Semple 
of  Noblestoun;  (2)  to  Marion,  daughter  of  Houstoun  of  Houston,  by  whom 
he  had  three  sons,  James,  Henry,  Robert.  In  a  charter  in  their  favour, 
dated  February  23rd  and  25th,  1483,  the  family  possessions  mentioned 
are, — Auchinames,  the  patronage  of  St.  Katharine's  Chapel,  and  Whiteside.'* 

^Eglinton  Papers,  p.  8,  No.  10.  "  Beg.  de  Pass.,  pp.  56-8.  '  AnU:,  pp.  48,  49. 

*Eglinton  Papers,  p.  13,  Noa.  22  and  24.  ^  Reg.  Mag.  Sig.,  i.  No.  1579. 


BARONS   AND  BARONIES— AUCHINAMES.  205 

In  1488,  he  acted  as  one  of  the  oversmen  in  a  dispute  between  the  Abbot 
of  Paisley  and  the  Burgh  of  Renfiew/  He  fell  at  the  Battle  of  Flodden, 
9th  September,  1513. 

VI. — James  [1513-  ],  had  three  sons,  Thomas,  Henry,  James. 
A  charter  in  his  favour  to  the  lands  of  Corsbie  and  Manoch  was  granted 
by  Sir  James  Campbell  of  Loudoun,  July  12,  1498  ;  which  lands  he 
resigned  to  the  Master  of  Glencairn  for  a  new  infeftment  in  favour  of 
Thomas,  his  son,  October  20,  1533.  He  granted  a  charter  to  the  lands 
of  Whiteside  in  favour  of  William  Wallace  of  Craigie,  November  4,  1526. 

Entries  to  the  following  effect  are  to  be  found  in  Sir  John  Craufurd's' 
Protocol  Book  : — 

Robert  Craufuid  resigned  into  the  hands  of  James  Campbell  of  Loudon  his  lands  of 
Corsbe  and  Munnock,  and  the  superior  granted  them  anew  to  James  Craufurd,  son  of 
Robert. 

Instrument  of  sasine  following  thereon. 

James  Crawford  resigned  into  the  hands  of  James,  Earl  of  Moray,  as  Baron  of 
Stevenston,  his  lands,  which  the  superior  granted  to  Thomas,  son  of  James,  and  Katrine 
Montgumeri  his  spouse  ;  reserving  frank  tenement  to  James. 

James  Craufurd  granted  a  presentation  [to  St.  Katharine's  Chapel?]  in  favour  of  Sir 
John  Craufurd,  Notary  and  Chaplain  of  our  Lady  Chaplainry  in  Kylberchan.  The  pre- 
sentation was  renewed  by  Thomas  Crawfurd.  The  chaplain  gave  a  loan  of  £100  to  John 
Craufurd  on  the  undestanding  that  he  was  not  to  be  disturbed  in  the  peaceable  possession 
of  the  chaplainry.  If  the  loan  was  not  repaid,  and  if  he  was  disturbed,  the  chaplain  had 
power  to  poind  and  distrain  for  £200. 

VII. — Thomas  [  -1544],  was  twice  married,  (l)  to  Elizabeth 
Cuninghame,  daughter  of  the  laird  of  Craigends  :  the  marriage  settlement 
has  been  preserved  and  is  dated  "At  Craigends,  16th  March,  1529  ";  (2) 
to  Marion  [Katheriue  ?]  Montgomery,  daughter  of  the  laird  of  Hazlehead, 
by  whom  he  had  thx'ee  sons — John,  William,  and  Patrick — who  lived  to 
be  respectively  8th,  9th,  and  10th  lairds  of  Auchinames. 

By  a  charter  of  James  V.,  Oct.  2,  1539,  he  recovered  possession  of  the 
lands  of  Auldmuir,  which  for  a  hundred  years  had  apparently  been  lost 
to  the  family. 

He  took  the  side  of  the  Cuninghames  against  the  Montgomeries  in 
the  great  feud,  and  was  charged,  along  with  forty  others,  mostly  Cuning- 
hames, of  lying  in  wait  with  intent  to  murder  William  Lord  Sempill. 

^Meg.  de  Pass.,  p.  407. 

=  Chaplain  of  St.  Katharine's  Chapel,  Notary  Public,  and  probably  a  relative  of  the  Auchi- 
names family.     The  Profucul  Buok  is  preserved  in  the  Register  House,  Edinburgh. 


206  KILBAKCHAN. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  occasion  on  which  he  had  to  "  thole  the  assize,"  for 
he  was  also  accused  of  laying  violent  hands  on,  and  holdino-  captive  at  the 
Place  of  Auchinaraes,  Thomas  Craufurd,  a  chaplain,  and  of  unjustly  eject- 
ing Margaret  Love,  a  widow,  and  her  son  from  the  lands  of  Kibhlestone, 
although  they  had  a  lease  of  them.  Along  with  his  brother,  James,  he 
was  accused  of  attacking  and  murdering  a  man  of  the  name  of  John 
White.  He  was  also  the  victim  of  a  conspiracy, — for  John  Walker,  a 
chaplain,  William  Lord  Sempill,  and  several  others,  their  accomplices, 
were  accused  of  assaulting  with  intent  to  slay  the  Laird  of  Auchinames.' 

VIII. — John,  [1544-47],  married  Egidia  Cuninghame,  daughter  of 
the  2nd  laird  of  Craigends,"  but  left  no  issue.  He  and  his  brother-in-law, 
Gabriel  Cuninghame  of  Craigends,  both  fell  at  the  Battle  of  Pinkie,  Sept, 
10,  1547. 

IX. — William  [1547-82],  who  succeeded  his  brother,  married  Anna- 
bella  Clialmer,  daughter  of  the  Laird  of  Gadgirth.  They  had  a  son  James, 
known  as  James  Craufurd  of  Crosbie,  who  in  1579  married  Lady  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  the  sixth  Earl  of  Glencairn  :  of  this  marriage  there  was 
an  only  child,  Jane,  known  as  Heiress  of  Crosbie,  who  afterwards  married 
her  cousin,  Patrick,  twelfth  laird  of  Auchinames.  James  Craufurd  pre- 
deceased his  father,  and  so,  when  the  latter  died  in  1582,  he  was  succeeded 
by  his  brother  Patrick. 

It  was  in  the  time  of  the  ninth  laird  that  the  curious  transaction  took 
place  by  which  the  Craufurds,  or  at  all  events  their  kinsmen,  recovered 
for  their  own  behoof  the  endowments  of  St.  Katharine's  Chapel.  The 
charter,  already  quoted,  bears  that  James  Chalmer  of  Gadgirth,  the 
father  or  brother-in-law  of  the  laird  of  Auchinames,  is  patron  of  St. 
Katharine's,  that  Master  David  Curll  is  perpetual  chaplain,  and  that 
Cui'll  with  the  consent  of  various  interested  parties  gives  in  fee  to  John 
Chalmer,  brother  of  the  patron,  the  endowments.^  Tlie  Chalmers  were 
known  to  be  zealous  Protestants.  In  1558  James  Chalmer  forced  his 
way  into  Queen  Mary's  presence,  and  addressed  her  in  insolent  and 
threatening  terms.  He  was  in  the  small  West  Country  army  which 
marched  to  the  relief  of  the  Protestants  at  Perth  in  1559,  and  his  name 
appears  in  the  Ayr  band  of  1564  and  at  the  end  of  the  resolutions  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  1567.     His  Protestantism  was  therefore  undoubted, 

'  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials.  '  Sir  John  Craufurd's  Protocol  Book  ^  Ante,  p.  49. 


BARONS  AND  BARONIES— AUCHINAMES.  207 

and  any  transaction  of  his  was  the  less  likely  to  have  its  hona-Jides 
suspected.  The  effect  of  the  charter  was  that  what  would  be  to-day  a 
very  valuable  endowment  was  lost  to  the  cause  of  religion. 

X. — Patrick  [1582-  ],  who  succeeded  his  nephew  in  some  of 
his  possessions  and  his  brother  as  laird,  married  a  daughter  of  John 
Frazer,  laird  of  Knock,  by  whom  he  had  a  son  WilHam.  According  to 
some  accounts  William  predeceased  his  father,  but  according  to  others  he 
lived  to  succeed  him.  The  tenth  laird  was  served  heir  to  his  nephew 
James  in  the  lands  of  Auldmuir  and  Whiteside,  Ap.  13,  1585,  and 
Ap.  11,  1586 — and  gave  sasine  of  Whiteside  to  Hugh  Moutgomerie  of 
Hazlehead,  May  24,  1588. 

The  tenth  laird  appears  to  have  been  very  contentious,  and  needy  as 
well.  King  James  VI.  in  1586  appointed  a  commission  of  four  lawyers — 
John  Skeen,  John  Learmont,  William  Oliphant,  and  Oliver  Colt — to 
enquire  into  a  dispute  between  the  laird  and  Malcolm  Crawford  of 
Kilbirnie  who  had  without  Auchinames'  consent  disposed  of  land  of  which 
he  was  the  superior.  Auchinames  was  also  sued,  December  3,  1591,  by 
his  relatives  Margaret  Craufurde  (Lady  Hunterstoun),  and  Robert  Stuart, 
now  her  spouse,  to  deliver  up  "ane  goldin  chenzie  and  silver  pece"  which 
the  lady  averred  belonged  to  her.  Failing  to  appear  when  summoned, 
he  was  put  to  the  horn  and  declared  a  rebel. 

XI. — William  [  -  ]  (it  is  doubtful,  as  has  been  already  men- 
tioned, whether  he  lived  to  succeed  his  father),  married  in  1587 
Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  Patrick  Houstoun  of  Houston,  by  whom  he 
had  a  son,  Patrick,  and  a  daughter,  Elizabeth.  During  the  progress  of 
one  of  the  law-suits  in  which  his  father  was  involved — WilUara  Patersoun 
and  Margaret  Knok,  spouses,  versus  Patrick  Craufurd,  Ap.  6,  1588 — 
WilHam  accused  the  presiding  judge,  William  Chirnesyde,  parson  of 
Luss,  of  doing  injustice,  and  created  a  scene  in  court.  For  this  act  of 
contempt  he  was  denounced  a  rebel.  Margaret  Houstoun,  better  known 
as  Lady  Auchinames,  who  was  reported  by  the  Minister  of  Kilbarchan 
to  the  Presbytery  of  Paisley  for  not  attending  Communion,  and  who 
retaliated  by  calling  the  Minister  "a  fifty-year-old  plague,"  died  in  1642.^ 
Her  will  is  as  follows  : — 


'  Ante,  pp.  62,  64. 


208  KILBARCHAN. 

"Legacie. — At  Auchinames  the  xiii.  day  of  May  Jal  Vic  fourtie  tuo  zeiris.  The  quhilk 
day,  I,  Dame  Margaret  Houstoun,  relict  of  vmquhile  William  Craufuird,  of  Auchinames, 
etc.,  ordaining  my  bodie  and  corps  to  be  bureid  amange  the  faithfull  with  my  said  husband 
in  Kilbarchane,  vpone  the  charges  eftir  specifit.  Throgh  guid  to  mak  and  set  doune  this 
my  latter  will  and  testament  as  foUowis  : — To  wit  in  the  first,  I  have  maid  and  constitute, 
etc.,  Patrik  Craufuird,  of  Auchinames,  Elizabethe  Craufuird,  my  loveing  bairne,  and 
Elizabethe  Naper,  my  oy,  all  thrie  conjund  equall  and  universall  executouris,  etc.  And 
leist  ony  questioune  sould  aryse,  I  have  declared  and  devydit  and  left  in  legacie  as 
followis,  viz. — In  the  first  I  ordane  the  soume  of  thrie  hundrithe  merks  money,  laying 
besyde  me,  to  be  taiken  and  bestowit  vpone  my  said  honest  buriall.  Item,  I  have  gevin 
and  left  in  frie  gift  presentlie  and  left  in  legacie.  to  William  Craufuirde,  appeirand  [ayre]  of 
Auchinames,  my  oy,  ane  sylwir  tas,  or  cowpe,  ane  sylwir  futtit  cope,  an  xi  silwir 
spones  to  be  keipit  be  him  within  the  hous  of  Auchinames  as  ane  memoriall.  Item,  I  leive 
and  presentlie  give  to  the  said  Elizabethe  Craufuird,  my  dochter,  and  Elizabethe  Naper, 
my  oy,  equallie  betwixt  thame,  all  the  inspreche,  etc.,  of  my  hous,  being  within  the  dooris, 
except  my  best  furneisched  fedder  bed,  dornik  baird  claithe,  capbuird,  and  the  mekill  kist 
above,  quhilk  I  left  and  presentlie  gevin  and  delyverit  to  the  said  Patrik  Craufuird  of 
Auchinames,  my  eldest  sone,  etc. 

Be  thir  presents,  wryttin  be  James  Craufuird,  sone  lawfull  to  the  said  Patrik 
Craufuird,  of  Auchinames,  my  oy,  and  subscryvit  with  my  hand  at  Auchinames,  etc.,  Before 
thir  witnesses  Johne  and  Patrik  Craufuirdi-s,  my  oyes,  and  Johnne  How  of  Damptoune,  sic 
subscribitur — I,  Dame  Margaret  Houstoun,  etc.,  with  my  hand  at  the  pen,  etc.,  becaus  I 
can  nocht  wryt  myself,  eto.—Housloniaim,  pp.  44,  45. 

XII. — Patrick  [  -1649],  son  of  the  eleventh  laird,  married  about 
1606  hi.s  second  cousin  Jean  Craufurd,  heiress  of  Crosbie,  grand-daughter 
of  the  ninth  laird.  By  this  marriage  the  ancient  estates  of  Auchinames 
and  Crosbie  were  again  united.  Since  the  bride  was  twenty-seven  years 
of  age  and  the  bridegroom  only  seventeen,  one  is  inclined  to  suspect  that 
it  was  a  ■manage  de  convenance.  There  was  a  family  of  six  sons  and  a 
daughter : — 

1.  William. 

2.  James,   Writer  to  the  Signet,  father  of  Patrick  Craufurd,  coun- 

sellor-of-Iaw,  London. 

3.  Captain    Robert    of    Nethermains,    married    his    cousin,    Agnes 

Craufurd,  heiress  of  Drumsoy.  David  Craufurd  of  Drumsoy 
(1665-1726),  Historiographer  Royal  of  Scotland,  less  famous 
than  notorious  by  reason  of  his  literary  forgeries,  was  their  son 
or  grand- son.  The  Historiographer's  daughter  Emily  died  un- 
married in  1731.  Her  grand-uncle,  Patrick  Craufurd,  merchant 
in  Edinburgh,  third  son  to  David  Craufurd,  sixth  laird  of 
Drumsoy,  who,  as  we  shall  see,  came  into  possession  of  Auchin- 
ames, 25th  February,  1715,  bought  Drumsoy  on  the  death  of 
Emily  Craufurd. 


BARONS   A\D  BAEONIES— AUCHINAMES.  209 

4.  Mr.  Hew,  Minister  at  Cumnock,  and  grandfather  of  Hugh  Crau- 

furd  of  Garrive, 

5.  John. 

6.  Patrick. 

1.  Elizabeth,  mentioned  in  her  grandmother's  will,  who  married 
Eobert  Hunter  of  Hunterston. 

Xin. — William  [  -  ],  married  Anna,  daughter  of  Colonel 
Sir  Colin  Lamont  of  Inveryne,  Argyllshire,  by  his  wife,  Barbara, 
daughter  of  Robert,  fourth  Lord  Sempill.  They  had  a  son,  Archibald, 
and  three  daughters. 

XIV. — Archibald  [  -1715],  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  John 
Porterfield  of  that  ilk,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  William,  who  died  before  his  father,  married  Helen,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Burnet,  Physician  to  King  William  HI.,  and  left  a 
daughter,  Helen  (died  January  25,  1776),  who  was  married  to 
Patrick  Edmonston  of  Newton  ;  of  this  marriage  there  were 
several  children. 

1.  Anna,  who  married  James  Bruce  of  Powfouls,  but  left  no  issue. 

2.  Jane,  who  married  Patrick  Craufurd,  merchant,  Edinburgh. 

3.  Margaret,  wlio  married  James  Young  of  Killiecanty,  but  left  no 

issue. 

The    estate   was    sold    to    Patrick    Craufurd,    husband    of  Jane,   second 
daughter  of  the  fourteenth  laird  in  1715. 

XV. — Patrick  [1715-33],  a  descendant  of  the  twelfth  laird  and 
son-in-law  of  the  fourteenth  laird,  married  (1)  a  daughter  of  Gordon  of 
Turnbery,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons, — 

1.  Thomas,  who  died  at  Paris  in  1724. 

2.  Robert,  author  of  Tweedside  and  Tlie  Bush  Ahoon  Traquair,  who 

died  in  1733. 

{2)  Jane,  daughter  of  the  sixteenth  laird,  by  whom  he  had  issue, — 

1.  Patrick. 

2.  George,  Lieut.-Col.  53rd   Regiment,   married  Anne,   daughter  of 

Edward  Randal  of  Salisbury,  and  had  issue,  (ob.  1758). 


210  KILBAECHAN. 

3.  Ronald  of  Restalrig,  mari'ied  Catherine,  daughter  of  John  Forbes 

of  Newhall,  and  had  issue. 

4.  James,  merchant  in  Holland,  married  Elizabeth  Andrews  of  Rot- 

terdam, and  had  issue. 

5.  Hugh,  a  merchant,  died  in  the  East  Indies,  unmarried. 

6.  Alexander,  Lieut.-Col.,  Governor  of  Minorca,  died  unmarried. 

XVI.— Patrick  [1733-78],  was  M.P.  for  the  County  of  Edin- 
burgh in  1741  and  again  in  1747,  and  for  the  County  of  Renfrew  in 
1761-8.  It  was  during  his  lifetime  that  the  estate  of  Auchinames  was 
sold  in  lots.  John  Semple  bought  Cartside  in  1750,  and  in  the  same 
year  James  M'Kemie  bought  Craigton  ;  in  1760  the  corn  mill  and  lands 
of  Glentyan  wei'e  sold  to  James  Black  of  Pennel,  and  in  1762  or  1764 
John  Barbour,  merchant  in  Kilbarchan,  bought  the  remainder  of  the 
barony  and  the  old  castle,  the  last  remnants  of  which  disappeared  in  1826.^ 

He  married  (1)  Elizabeth,  daughter  and  co-heiress  of  George 
Middleton,  banker  in  London,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons  ; — 

1.  John. 

2.  James,   Colonel  in   the  Guards  and  Governor  of  Bermuda,   who 

died  without  is&ue  in  1811. 
and  (2)  Sarah,  daughter  of  Hugh,  twelfth  Lord  Sempill,  by  whom  he  had 
a  daughter,  Sarah,  who  died  unmarried  in  1796. 

XVIL— John  [  -1814],  M.P.  for  Old  Sarum  in  1768  and  for 
the  County  of  Renfrew,  Oct.  1774,  was  the  associate  and  friend  of  Charles 
James  Fox.     He  died  unmarried,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  cousin. 

XVIIL— John  [1814-67],  born  4th  Jan.  1780,  married,  16th  Aug. 
1814,  Sophia  Marianna,  daughter  of  Maj. -Gen.  Couchill  and  great-grand- 
daughter of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  and  had  issue, — 

1.  Edward  Henry  John  (1816-87). 

2.  Frederick  Augustus  Buchanan  (1822-75),  Admiral  R.N. 

3.  Robert  Emilius  Fazakerley  (1825-81),  Lieut.-Col.  R.A. 

4.  George  Ponsonby(  1826-89). 

1.  Catherine  Horatia  (         -1892). 

2.  Georgiana  Janet,  who  married  in  1857  Count  Marco  Aurelio  SaflB, 

one  of  the  Triumvirs  of  the  Roman  Republic  (1849). 

'  Paisley  Magazine,  1828. 


B.AJIONS  AND   BARONIES— SEMPILL.  211 

XIX.— Edward  Henry  John  [1867-87],  M.P.  for  Ayr  Burghs  1852- 
74,  M.A.,  Barrister-at-Law,  married  Oct.  6,  1863,  Frances,  daughter  of 
Rev.  William  ]\folesworth.  Rector  of  St.  Breoke,  Cornwall,  and  sister  of 
Sir  Paul  W.  Molesworth,  10th  Baronet  of  Pencarrow,  and  has  issue,— 

1.  Hugh  Ronald  George  (1873-         ). 

1.  May  Beatrice. 

2.  Katherine  Yseult,  who  married  Capt.  John  Stuart,  Black  Watch. 

3.  Frances  Guenevere,  who  married  Capt.  Francis  Granville,  D.S.O., 

Royal  Engineers. 

XX. — Hugh  Ronald  George  [1887-  ],  married  in  1896,  Teresa 
Mary,  second  daughter  of  Charles  Austin  Gibson,  J. P.,  co.  Gloucester,  and 
has  issue. 

The  Barony  of  Auchinames  in  Kilbarchan  still  clearly  defined  for 
land-tax  purposes  includes  the  following : — Auchinames,  Bankhead, 
Rabston  and  Glentyan  Hill,  Glentyan,  Houston's  Property,  Minister's 
Park,  Honeyman's  Property,  Nebannoy,  Kibbleston,  Craigton,  Craig's 
Plantation,  Cartside,  Wardend,  Huthead,  Langside,  Callochant,  North 
and  South  Overton,  Gladstone,  Burntshields  Glebe  and  Mossfoul, 
Dampton  and  Passinglinn. 

The  arms  of  Craufurd  of  Auchinames,  according  to  Burke,  are  : — 

Quarterly  1st  and  4th  gu.,  a  fess  erm.  ;  2nd  and  3rd  arg.,  a 
stag's  head  erased  gu.  Crest. — A  stag's  head  erased  gu., 
between  the  attires  a  cross  crosslet  fitchde.  Supporters. — 
Two  bulls  sa.,  armed  and  unguled  or.  Motto. — Tutum  te 
robore  reddam. 

The  ancient  arms  of  the  family  according  to  Crawford  and  Nisbet 
■were  : — Ar.,  two  spears  saltire  ways,  betwixt  four  spots  erm.  ;  and 
according  to  Balfour  : — Gu.  a  fess  erm.,  surmounted  by  two  lances  in 
saltire.     Motto, — God  shaw  the  right. 


///. — Sempill  of  Castle  Sempill. 

The  claim  of  Kilbarchan  to  the  Sempills  rests  upon  the  fact  that 
•each  of  their  baronies,  Sempill  and  Craiginfeoch,  included  lands  In  the 
parish,  and  that  the  Castle  of  Sempill  is  just  beyond  the  boundary  of 
Kilbarchan  Parish. 


212  KILBARCHAX. 

(«)  Egbert  de  Sempill,  the  earliest  of  the  name  as  yet  discovered, 
lived  in  the  reign  of  Alexander  III.  [1249-85],  and  held  the  office  of 
Steward  of  the  Barony  of  Renfrew  ;  hence,  no  doubt,  came  the  chevron 
cheque  in  the  Sempill  coat  of  arms  in  imitation  of  their  patrons  and 
over-lords  the  Stewarts. 

(b)  Robert  [  -1330],  son  of  («),  obtained  from  Robert  the  Bruce 
possessions  in  the  Parish  of  Largs,  part  of  the  forfeited  estate  of  the 
Balliol.     His  wife  was  Marjory  Bruce. 

(c)  William  of  Eliotstoun  [ab.  1344],  Steward  of  Renfrew. 
{(l)  Thomas  of  EUiestoun  [ab.  13G7]. 

(e)  Sir  John  of  EUiestoun  [ab.  1392],  received  from  King  Robert 
II.  a  charter  to  the  lands  of  Glassford  in  1375.  An  annual  pension  of 
£20  from  the  customs  of  Edinburgh  was  settled  on  him  and  his  heirs.^ 
Either  he  or  his  son  was  official  auditor  of  the  Exchequer  accounts  in 
1426. 

(/)  Sir  John  of  EUotstoun"  was  one  of  those  who  went  to  meet 
King  James  I.  on  his  return  from  captivity  in  1423. 

Henry  VI.,  Dec.  13,  1423.— Safe  conduct  till  30  April— John  Sympyl  of  Elyotiston  to 
come  to  the  presence  of  the  King  to  Durham. ^ 

He  was  auditor  of  the  accounts  of  the  Island  of  Bute  ;  and  Jean,  either 
his  sister  or  his  daughter,  was  married  to  Sir  John  Stewart,  son  of 
King  Robert  II.,  Sheriff  of  Bute  and  Arran,  and  Keeper  of  Rothesay 
Castle.     He  had  a  seat  in  the  Parliaments  of  1440-1. 

(</)  Sir  Robert  obtained  for  himself  and  Elizabeth  his  wife  a  charter 
to  the  lands  of  Southennan.  In  1455-6  he,  as  Sheriff  of  Bute,  gave  a 
return  of  his  income  and  expenditure.^ 

(/()  Sir  William,  hereditary  Sheriff"  of  Renfrew,  obtained  from  King- 
James  III.  a  charter  confirming  him  in  the  baronies  of  EUiestoun  and 
Castletoun  {i.e.,  Castle  Sempill),  4th  Oct,,  1474.  He  married  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Lord  Cat  heart. 

(i)  Thomas,  sat  in  Parliament  Feb.  1483-4,  and  is  described  as  Yice- 
comes  {i.e.,  Sheriff)  of  Renfrew.  He  fell  at  the  battle  of  Sauchieburn, 
fighting  on  the  side  of  King  James  III.,  11th  June,  1488.  He  married 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Lord  Koss,  by  whom  he  had  a  family  of  a  son — 
the  first  Lord — and  four  daughters. 


»  Exchequer  Bolls,  1379-1406  A.D.  ' Eglinton  Papers,  p.  12,  No.  18. 

I  Calendar  of  Documents  (Scotland).  *  Exchequer  EoJh,  III.  1379-1406  A.D. 


BARONS  AND   BARONIES— SEMPILL. 


THE    LORDS    SEMPILL. 


I. — Sir  John  [1488-1513],  was  raised  to  the  Peerage  by  King  James 
IV.,  and  sat  in  the  Parliament  1503-4.  In  1501,  as  Sheriff  of  Renfrew, 
he  made  a  return  to  the  Excliequer  of  all  receipts  and  expenses  of  his 
jurisdiction.  The  Earl  of  Angus  and  lie  were  ambassadors  to  the  court  of 
Henry  VIL,  and  as  such  Lord  Sempill  received  a  grant  of  £20  towards 
his  expenses.'  When  James  IV.  visited  Paisley  in  1504,  there  is  a  notice 
of  14  shillings  given  to  "  Lord  Simpill's  harpar."  '"  A  confirmation  charter 
dated,  21st  Sept.,  1505,  erecting  and  incorporating  certain  lands  as  the 
free  barony  of  Sympill,  makes  mention  of  Bar  in  Kilbarchane,  Brandiscroft, 
Weitlandis,  Haryspennalis,  Borlanddis.'  The  Collegiate  Church  founded 
by  him  in  1505-G  was  endowed  with  rents  from  the  Sempill  possessions  in 
Kilbarchan.  Lord  Sempill  fell  at  Flodden  in  1513,  and  a  monument  to 
his  memory  was  erected  in  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Sempill,  though  his 
body  iu  all  probaliility  lies  buried  on  the  battlefield.  In  1513  the 
Sheriffdom  of  Renfrew  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  Hugh,  Earl  of 
Eglintoun,  who  is  answerable  for  certain  fees  due  to  the  King  on  the 
succession  of  William,  second  lord. 

The  first  lord  married  (1)  Margaret,  daughter  of  Sir  Robert  Colvill  of 
Ochiltree,  and  had  issue — 

1.  William. 

2.  Gabriel,  ancestor  of  the  Sempilla  of  Catlicart, 

and  (2)  Margaret  Crichton  of  Ruthvendenny,  widow  of  Sir  John  Stirling- 
of  Keir.^ 

II. — William  [1513-48],  Privy  Counsellor  to  King  James  V.,  Lord 
Justiciary,  Sherifl"  of  Renfrew,  Coroner  and  Mayor  of  Fees  within  the 
district  between  the  Black  Cart  and  the  Levern.  The  office  of  Sheriff 
of  Renfrew  was  no  sinecure,  as  we  find  Lord  Sempill  [1526-7]  taking 
on  trial  James  Andro,  John  Mudy,  and  John  Gilcrist  for  common  theft,* 
and  in  1528,  along  with  his  son,  trying  John  Watsoun  in  Bennytoun, 
Robert  Watsoun,  Robert  alias  Rob  the  man,   Thomas  Alanson,  David 

Bard  and Makcosche  for  a  similar  offence.     During  the  second  Lord's 

time  the  feeling  between  the  rival  factions  of  Montgomerie  and  Cuning- 

"  Calendar  of  Documents  (Scottish).  -  Accounts  of  Lord  Hhjh  Treasurer. 

"  Eeg.  Mag.  Sig.,  i.,  No.  2882.  ■■  Exchequer  Bolls,  1502-7.  ^  Ibid. 


^14  KILBARCHAN. 

liame  was  at  its  height,  and  though  Lord  Sempill  kept  himself  clear  of 
entanglements,  his  son,  the  Master  of  Sempill,  did  not.  There  are  in 
existence  two  charters  of  King  James  V.,  17th  March,  1539-40,  the  one 
confirming  Lord  Sempill  in  the  free  barony  of  Craginfeauch,  including 
Bar  in  Kilbarchan,  Brandiscroft,  Weitlandis,  Haris-pennaldis,  Bordlandis, 
and  the  10  merk  land  O.  E.  of  the  Thirdpart  of  Auchnames,  and  the 
other  confirming  him  in  the  free  barony  of  Sympill,  which  included 
Nethir  Pennell  ;  and  a  charter  of  Queen  Mary,  10th  February,  1543-4, 
confirming  him  in  both  baronies  severally.' 

The  second  Lord  married  (1)  Margaret,  daughter  of  Hugh,  first  Earl 
of  Eglintoun,  by  whom  he  liad  issue — 

1.  Robert,  his  heir. 

2.  David,  ancestor  of  the  Sempills  of  Craigbait. 

1.  Helen,  who  married  Alan,  third  Lord  Cathcart. 

2.  Mary,  who  married  Sir  John  Stirling  of  Keir. 

He  married  (2)  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Arnot  of  Arnot,  and  (3)  Marian, 
daughter  of  Hugh  Montgomerie  of  Hazelhead. 

HL — Robert  [1548-72],  is  known  as  the  Great  Lord  Sempill.  As 
Master  of  Sempill  he  was  put  to  the  horn  and  banished  for  certain  deeds 
he  had  conunitted  or  had  been  privy  to  in  the  Montgoinerie-Cuninghame 
feud.  In  1540,  his  father  had  to  become  security  in  ;£5000  that  he 
should  not  return  to  Scotland  without  the  special  license  of  the  King.'' 
He  settled  at  CarHsle,  where  he  had  negotiations  with  Sir  Thomas 
Wharton,  Henry  VHI.'s  agent,  who  was  instructed  "to  practise  with 
Symple  for  the  winning  of  Sir  John  Campbell  and  the  Earl  of  Argyle." 
On  his  return  to  Scotland,  1543,  he  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 
Wharton,  whom  he  ingenuously  advised  "  to  trust  no  Scotishe  man."  ^ 
He  was  present  at  the  Battle  of  Pinkie,  1547,  and  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  English.  At  the  Reformation,  1560,  he  "disobeyed  the  lawes  and 
ordinances  of  the  Counsall  in  many  thingis  and  especiallie  in  that,  that 
he  wold  manteane  the  idolatrie  of  the  Messe."  ^  As  early  as  December  in 
the  preceding  year  Castle  Sempill  was  invested  by  the  Duke  of  Chastel- 
herault,  and  Mary  of  Guise  directed  French  troops  to  raise  the  siege,  21st 
March,    15G0.      In   a   letter   to    Norfolk,    March    29,    1560,    the  Queen 

'  Eeg.  Mag.  iiig.,  II.,  Noa.  2124,  2125,  2991.  =  Pitcairn's  Criminal  Trials. 

'  Hamilton  Papers.  *  Knox's  Uist.,  II.  p.  130. 


BARONS   AND  BARONIES— SEMPILL.  215 

Dowager  complained  of  those  who  were  invading  her  subjects  and  their 
houses,  especially  Castle  Sempill.  Though  menaced  at  this  time,  the 
castle  was  not  actively  assailed  until  the  autumn.  Meanwhile  Lord 
Sempill  wrote  the  Duke  asking  that  his  house  should  be  spared.  This 
favour  was  not  granted,  because  it  appeared  that  Lord  Sempill  had  been 
guilty  of  several  acts  of  aggression. 

17  Aug.,  15G0. — Though  by  the  late  treaty  it  was  provided  that  all  oppression  should 
cease  ....  it  has  been  complained  to  the  Council  that  Robert,  Lord  Sympill,  and 
others  had  committed  many  slaughters  and  "  heirschippis"  burnt  houses  and  corn,  and 
"  kest  down  stane  howsis  "  only  on  private  feuds  with  his  party  though  summoned  failing 
to  appear  was  denounced  rebel  and  put  to  the  horn  and  so  remains.  Yet  he  has  anew 
strengthened  himself  with  men  of  war  in  the  Castle  of  Sempill  and  "  ofT  new  fortit  ane 
hows  [the  peel]  within  ane  ile  in  the  loch  of  Lochquhinyeoch  "  daily  reiving  and  spoiling, 
"not  sparand  to  sla  auld  men  off  fowr  skoir  yeris  off  age  lyand  decrippit  in  their  beddis." 
Charlebois  the  Captain  is  to  be  asked  to  deliver  him  up.  This  he  declined  to  do  [17  Sept., 
1560]  however  saying  that  Lord  Semple  is  in  the  King  and  Queen's  service  and  no  rebel. ^ 

Sempill  had  not  yet  resolved  to  offer  resistance  to  the  Protestant  party: — 

7  Sept.,  1560.^ — My  Lord  of  Arran  (the  Duke's  second  son)  was  to  have  besieged  Lord 
Sempill ;  but  the  matter  is  like  to  come  to  communication  which  many  think  best. 
[Randolph  to  Cecil.]  ^ 

The  siege,  when  it  did  take  place,  was  evidently  at  first  directed  by  the 
Earl  of  Glencairn  or  his  brother  : — 

17  Sept.,  1.060. — I  assure  you,  Glencairn  writes  to  Arran,  on  my  honour  this  last 
Wednesday  (18th)  the  few  hagbulters  you  have  here  came  to  Castle  Sempill  and  they 
within  came  forth  to  the  "  yeardis  "  in  their  accustomed  manner  ;  and  they  more  wilful 
than  wise  came  plain  upon  them  and  dang  them  out  of  the  yearde  in  to  the  castell  quhil  as 
they  shot  little  pistoles  at  thame  out  of  the  vyndois,  and  durst  not  cum  to  the  wal  hedis  T 
and  to  verify  this  they  took  sheep  that  they  had  in  the  close  away  with  them.  And  never 
a  man  hurt  or  slain  but  one  who  will  not  be  the  "  were  "  but  divers  of  the  enemy  evil  hurt 
as  my  brother  has  written  me  this  day.^ 

Randolph  did  not  arrive  at  the  Castle  until  September  24  ;  while  on  his 
way  thither  he  wrote  to  Cecil  : — 

23  Sept.,  1560. — Lord  Arran  continues  his  journey  to  Castle  Sempill  ;  they  lately 
slew  an  old  man  above  80,  since  Sempill  came  to  Dunbar.  His  other  doings  are  intolerable  : 
"  When  Goddes  wyll  is  to  delyvar  hym,  Dumbarre  cane  not  holde  hym."  ^ 

From  this  we  understand  that  his  Lordship  had  left  the 
be  defended  by  others  and  had  gone  to  Dunbar. 

^  Calendar  of  Scottish  PaiJers.    .  "Ibid.  'Ibid. 


IJIG  KILBARCHAN.     . 

7  Oct.,  1560. — Negotiations  take  place  between  Arran  and  young  Sempill  regarding 
the  surrender  of  the  Castle.^ 

These  came  to  nothing,  foi-  four  days  later  Randolphe  writes  : — 

The  Duke  is  at  Hamilton,  Arran  at  Castle  Sempill.  The  Lord  himself  is  so  wilful 
that  there  is  no  reason  to  be  had  at  his  hands ;  "  hys  sonnes  breed  of  the  father,  and  so  are 
determyned  to  make  a  symple  ende."^ 

21  Oct.,  15G0. — I  repaired  to  my  Lord  of  Arran  at  Castle  Sempill,  who  after  long 
"cumber  and  myche  adoe  "  had  it  delivered  to  him,  after  beating  down  the  chiefest  tower 
of  defence.  He  was  at  it  10  days,  7  of  them  so  evil  that  neither  approach  could  be  made 
nor  artillery  planted.  The  Master  and  his  brother  with  the  chiefest  yielded  to  my  lord  and 
are  presently  with  him  in  this  town  (Hamilton).  The  custody  of  the  house  is  committed 
to  Captain  Forbes  with  10  soldiers  to  be  used  at  the  lord's  will.  The  little  fort  that  Lord 
Symple  built  in  the  hniiihe  is  to  be  overthrown  "rather  for  the  name  sake  than  that  yt  anye 
thynge  importethe."  As  symple  was  his  devise  to  name  yt  "Defendour  of  the  Faythe  "  as 
as  he  hathe  byne  symple  in  all  his  other  doynges.  Arran  requires  no  reward  but 
the  disposal  thereof.  Lord  Semple  himself  and  the  laird  of  Blanerne  hath  left  Dunbar  for 
France  [Randolphe.]  ^ 

Writing  to  Maitland  luider  the  same  date,  Randolphe  tells  that  it  was  not 
until  the  eighth  day  that  the  artillery  could  he  placed  owing  to  bad 
weather.  At  night,  after  "  maynie  sutes "  there  was  an  appearance  of 
good  effect.  At  3  p.m.  next  day  the  gate-house  tower  fell  in  two  halves. 
Early  next  morning  the  garrison  hung  out  a  "  whyte  bannarde"  and  the 
Master  of  Sempill  surrendered  unconditionally.  The  Castle  and  the 
house  in  the  Loch  we're  committed  to  the  care  of  Captain  Forbes  and  ten 
men. 

The  things  in  the  house,  he  continues,  reserved  unspoiled  are  not  worth  40  crowns. 
The  country  round  is  well  delivered  of  such  cumberous  neighbours.  To  rehearse  our 
incommodities  by  rain  and  wind  were  to  good  a  pastyme  for  you  to  knowe.  My  Lord 
and  his  nearest  friends  lodged  in  a  barn  where  I  was  myself  the  least  of  six  that  lay  in  one 
bedde.^ 

For  thus  resisting  the  Protestant  party  Lord  Sempill  was  put  to  the  horn, 
but  was  relaxed  therefrom  by  March,  156L  For  six  or  seven  years  he 
continued  to  be  a  firm  supporter  of  Queen  Mary  and  was  in  high  favour 
at  Court,  notwithstanding  that  he  protested  against  the  grants  of  land 
that  were  made  to  Rizzio.  In  15G7  he  was  one  of  the  assize  before  which 
Bothwell  was  arraigned  on  the  charge  of  murdering  Darnley.  His  name, 
along  with  the  names  of  other  twenty  Earls  and  Barons,  appears  in  a  bond 

'  Calendar  of  Scottish  Papers.  '  Ibid.  '■'  Ibid.  •*  Ibid. 


BARONS  AND   BARONIES-SEMPILL.  217 

by  which  the  signatories  pledge  themselves  to  maintain  Bothwell's  inno- 
cence, and  to  stand  by  him  if  the  Queen  marries  him.  It  is  understood 
that  this  document  was  signed  under  compulsion  or  threat.'  In  the 
struggle  which  ensued  Lord  Sempill  was  on  the  side  of  Queen  Mary's 
enemies,  being  in  the  Eegent's  army  at  the  Battle  of  Langside,  14th 
May  1568,  and  being  one  of  those  wlio  witnessed  the  forcing  open  of  the 
casket  containing  the  celebrated  letters,  29th  December,  156S.  He  was 
in  command  at  Dumbarton  (Jastle  when  it  was  taken  by  Lord  Claud 
Hamilton,  4th  October,  1568,  and  with  Glencairn  and  others  he  anew 
besieged  it,  August,  1569.  For  some  years,  during  the  disgrace  of  the 
Hamiltons,  he  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  temporalities  of  the  Abbey  of 
Paisley. 

The  third  Lord  married  (1)  Isabel,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Hamilton 
of  Sanquhar,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  Robert,  who  predeceased  his  father,   1569,    but  left  issue  a  son, 

Robert  (who  succeeded  his  grandfather  as  fourth  Lord)  by  his 
wife.  Barbara  Preston  of  Valleyfield. 

2.  Andrew,  ancestor  of  the  Sempills  of  Bruntschells  and  Millbank." 

1.  Grizel,  whose  name  is  unfavourably  associated  with  that  of  John 

Hamilton,  Abbot  of  Paisley  and  Archbishop   of  St.  Andrews, 
married  James  Hamilton  of  Stanhouse. 

2.  Margaret,  who  married  (1)  John  Hamilton  of  Broomhall,  and  (2) 

John  Whitefoord  of  Whitefoord. 

3.  Janet,  who  married  Hugh  Montgomerie  of  Hazelhead. 

4.    ,  who  married  Alexander  Fleming  of  Barrochan. 

5.  Dorothy,  who  married  Robert  Montgomerie  of  Skelmorlie. 

He  married  (2)  Elizabeth  Carlyle  of  Torthorwald,  and  had  issue — 

1.  John,  the  Dancer,  first  laird  of  Beltrees  and  Thirdpart. 

2.  William  (?). 

Father  Forbes  Leith,  S.J.,  gives  a  long  and  interesting  account  of  Colonel 
William  Semple,  who,  he  says,  was  a  son  of  Robert,  third  Lord.  He  was 
born  in  1546,  and  brought  up  at  the  Court  of  Queen  Mary.  After  the 
Queen's  flight,  1568,  he  went  to  Belgium  and  served  for  a  time  under  the 

1  Tytler's  History,  III.  p.  245. 

''On  the  interior  sole  of  the  window  in  the   North  transept  of   Paisley  Abbey  there  is  an 

A  X  S  X  I 
inscription      ■      ^^^^^ 


218  KILBAHCHAN. 

Prince  of  Orange.  Upon  hearing  that  Queen  Mary's  sympathies  were 
with  the  King  of  Spain,  he  changed  sides  and  was  employed  by  this 
monarch  on  secret  embassies  to  Scotland.  During  one  of  his  visits  to 
Edinburgh,  he  was  recognised,  apprehended,  and  imprisoned  in  the 
garret  of  a  house  seven  storeys  high,  from  which  he  made  his  escape 
by  means  of  a  silken  cord  sent  him  in  a  pie,  by  his  sister,  the  Countess  of 
Ross.  In  1593,  he  married  a  Spanish  lady  who  bore  him  two  daughters, 
one  of  whom  took  the  veil.  In  lieu  of  salary  the  King  of  Spain  gave  him 
the  magnificent  house  which  had  at  one  time  belonged  to  the  Milanese 
artist,  Jacobo  de  Trezo  ;  this  house  Colonel  Semple  gave  to  the  Church, 
and  it  was  for  a  time  the  seat  of  the  Scots  College,  soon  afterwards 
transferred  to  Valladolid.  He  died,  March  I,  1G33,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
seven.  F.  Hugh  Semple,  S.J.,  an  eminent  linguist  and  mathematician, 
Rector  of  the  Scots  College,  is  said  to  have  been  a  relative  of  the  Colonel. 
Father  Semple  died  September  29,  1654,  aged  58.' 

IV. — Robert  [1572-1611],  grandson  of  the  third  Lord,  was  a  rigid 
adherent  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  "  was  denounced  and  put  to  the 
horn  for  intruding  Sir  Johnne  Hamilton,  a  popish  priest,  in  the  vicarage 
of  Eastwood." '^  He  continued,  however,  to  enjoy  the  hereditary  offices  of 
the  family,  was  a  Privy  Councillor,  and  was  sent  as  ambassador  to  Spain 
in  1596. 

He  married  (1)  Anne,  daughter  of  Hugh,  third  Earl  of  Eglinton,  and 
had  issue  : — 

1.  Hugh. 

1.  Anne,  who  married,  1603,  Sir  Archibald  Stewart  of  Castlemilk. 

2.  Beatrix,  who  married  Sir  Colin  Lamont  of  Inveryne. 

3.  Grizel,  who  married  John  Logan  of  Raiss. 

4.  Margaret,  who  married  Robert  Brisbane  of  Bishopstoun. 

He  married  (2)  Dame  Joanna  de  Evieland,  a  lady  of  the  Low  Countries, 
who  bore  him  a  son,  who  became  Sir  James  Sempill  of  Letterkenny, 
ancestor  of  Viscount  Southwell. 

V. — Hugh  [1611-1639],  the  fortunes  of  the  family  being  already  on 
the  wane,  had  to  sell  the  hereditary  office  of  Sherift'  of  Ptenfrew  to  the  Earl 
of  Eglinton,  with  the  reservation  that  it  might  be  redeemed  on  payment  of 

1  Nanafires  vf  Scottish  Catholics.  "-  Reg.  of  Prinj  Council,  ii.  229. 


BAEONS  AND  BARONIES— SEMPILL.  219 

£5000.  It  was  never  redeemed,  for  on  the  abolition  of  hereditary  judge- 
ships in  1747,  it  was  Lord  Eglinton  who  received  the  compensation.  A 
Charter  of  Charles  I.,  '22nd  February,  1634,  grants  the  Barony  of  Craigin- 
feoch  to  his  Lordship  in  life  rent  and  to  his  son  in  fee.^ 

He  married  (1)  Anne,  daughter  of  James,  first  Earl  of  Abercorn,  by 
whom  he  had  a  daughter, 

1.  Marion,  who  married  Sir  George  Preston  of  Valley  field,  Bart, 
and  (2)  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Francis,  9th  Earl  of  Errol,  by  whom  he 
had  issue : — 

1.  Francis,  sixth  Lord. 

2.  Robert,  seventh  Lord. 

3.  Archibald,  of  Dykehead. 2 

4.  James,  who  entered  a  religious  order  abroad. 

2,  Elizabeth,  who  married,  William,  second  Lord  Mordington. 

3.  Jean,  who  married  William  Menzies  of  Pitfoddels. 

VL — Francis  [1639-44],  married  Isobel,  daughter  of  George,  second 
Earl  of  Winton,  but  left  no  issue. 

VII. — Robert  [1644-75],  was  he  on  whom  the  Presbytery  bestowed 
so  much  unwelcome  attention  in  the  hope  of  winning  him  from  his 
adherence  to  Rome.^  During  the  Protectorate  he  was  fined  £1000  for  his 
Royalist  sympathies. 

He  married  Anne,  daughter  of  James,  first  Lord  Mordington,  and  had 
issue  : — - 

1.  James  [Robert?],  Master  of  Sempill,  predeceased  his  father,  un- 

married. 

2.  Francis,  eighth  Lord. 

1.  Anne,  Baroness  Sempill  (IX.). 

2.  Jean,  who  married  Alexander  Sinclair  of  Roslin. 

Lord  Sempill  made  an  entail  of  his  estates  and  honours,  bringing  in  after 
heirs  male  of  his  body,  his  daughter  Anne  and  the  heirs  male  of  her 
body,  and  certain  other  heirs — a  settlement  which  was  not  confirmed  by 
the  Crown  until  25th  July,  1685.' 

'  Beg.  Mag.  iVy.,  VIII.,  No.  41.  »  See  Poll  Tax  Boll,  p.  123. 

'  A  nte,  pp.  76,  77.  ^  Burke's  Peerage. 


220  KILBARCHAN. 

VIII. — Francis  [1675-84],  was  the  first  since  the  great  Lord  Senipill 
to  take  his  seat  in  Parlianienf,  1G80.  Having  been  brought  up  under  the 
care  of  the  Earl  of  Diuidonald,  a  zealous  Protestant,  he  was  persuaded  to 
denounce  his  ancestral  faith,  and  so  got  rid  of  tlie  disahlHties  that  clung 
to  it. 

He  married  Grizel,  daughter  of  Sir  Archibald  Primrose,  and  sister  of 
the  first  Earl  of  Rosebery,  but  died  without  issue. 

IX. — Anne,  Baroness  Sernpill  [1684-95],  married  Francis  Aber- 
cromby  of  Fetterneir,  Aberdeenshire,  to  whom  was  granted  a  life  peerage 
under  the  title  of  Lord  Glassford,  and  had  issue  : — • 

1.  Francis,  tenth  Lord. 

2.  Robert,  slain  in  battle. 

3.  John,  eleventh  Lord. 

4.  Hugh,  twelftli  Lord. 

Lady  Seinpill  and  her  husband  on  a  subsequent  resignation  had  the  limi- 
tation of  the  estates  and  honours  extended,  failing  issue,  made  to  heirs 
female  and  other  heirs,  by  a  Crown  Charter,  16th  May,  1688,  containing 
a  power  of  nomination.' 

X. — Francis  [J  695-1716],  sat  in  the  Scottish  Parliament,  and 
opposed  the  proposals  for  the  Union,  which  was  accomplished  in  1707. 
He  died  unmarried,  and  was  buried  in  Holyrood  Abbey,  where  the  inscrip- 
tion on  a  recumbent  stone  indicates  the  exact  site  of  his  grave. 

XI. — John  [1716-27],  was  an  ofiicer  in  the  Ayrshire  Fencibles,  a 
regiment  raised  to  support  the  House  of  Hanover,  in  the  Rebellion  of 
1715.      He  died  unmarried,  and  is  buried  in  Holyrood. 

In  1727,  the  Lordshiji  of  Castle  Sernpill  was  sold  to  Colonel  William 
MacDowall,  a  younger  son  of  Alexander  MacDowall  of  Garthland,  Gallo- 
way. While  with  his  regiment  in  the  West  Indies,  he  had  married  Mary 
Tovie,  daughter  of  Mary  Steven,  wife  of  James  Millikeu.  In  1735  the 
old  and  historic  castle  gave  place  to  the  present  house. 

XIL— Hugh  [1727-46],  served  with  the  British  Army  abroad;  he 
acted  as  Brigadier  General,  and  commanded  the  left  wing  of  the  Royal 

'  Burke's  Peerage. 


BAKOXS  AND   BAKONIES-SEMPILL.  221 

Army  at  the  Battle  of  Cullodeii,  16th  April,  1740.  He  died  at  Aberdeen 
towards  the  end  of  the  same  year,  and  was  buried  in  the  Drums  Aisle  of 
the  West  Kirk. 

In  1741  he  bought  from  James  M'Gilchrist  part  of  the  lands  of  Barr 
in  Inchinnan,  and  built  a  m;insion,  Icnown  as  Sempill  House,  situated  a 
little  to  the  east  of  Er'skine  Ferr\'. 

He  married  Sarah,  daughter  and  co-heiress  (with  Iiebecca  her  sister, 
wife  of  Richard  Clive,  father  of  the  first  Lord  Olive)  of  Nathaniel  Gaskell 
of  Manchester,  by  whom  he  had  amongst  others  : — 

1.  John. 

2.  George,  an  officer  in  the  army,  who  married  (l)  Miss  Gordon  of 

Wardhouse ;  (2)   in   176G,    his  cousin.  Miss  Clive  of  Styche  ; 
and  (3)  in  1775,  Mrs.  Joddrell  of  Yeardsley. 

3.  Hugh,  died  uiuiiarried  in  17G4. 

1.  Sarah,   who  married  in   175U,  Patrick  Craufurd  of  Drumsoy  and 

Auchinames,  and  had  issue  a  daughter,  Janet,  who  died  un- 
married in  1796. 

2.  Anne,  who  married  in    1754  Adam   Austin,  M.D.,  and  had  eight 

daughters  and  a  son,  Hugh,  judge  at  Burdwan. 

3.  4,  5.   Marion  (ob.  1796),  Jane,  and  Rebecca  (ob.  1811)  are  buried 

in  Holy  rood. 

XHl. — John  [1746-82],  married  in  1755,  Janet,  daughter  of  Hugh 
Dunlop  of  Bishopstoun,  and  had  issue  : — ■ 

1.   Hugh,  born  1st  July,  1758. 

1.  Sarah,   who  married  in    1780,  Sir  William  Forbes  of  Craigievar. 

Their  grandson  is  the  seventeenth  Lord  Sempill. 

2.  Janet,  who  died  in  1858,  aged  ninety. 

3.  Joanna. 

XIV. — Hugh  [1782-1830],  a  captain  in  the  army,  married  Maria, 
daughter  of  Robert  Mellish  of  Ragnall,  Nottingham,  by  whom  he  had 
issue  : — 

1.  Selkirk. 

2.  Francis,  who  died  in  1823. 

1.  Maria  Janet  (XVL). 

2.  Sarah,  who  died  in  1866,  and  is  buried  in  Holyrood. 


222  KILBAECHAN. 

XV. — Selkirk  [1830-5],  died  unmarried,  and  was  succeeded  by  liis 
sister. 

XVI. — Maria  Janet,  Baroness  Senipill  [1835-84],  married  in  1836 
Edward  Chandler  of  Dun  Edin,  Co.  Edinburgh,  and  of  Morton  Pinkney, 
Northampton.  Baroness  Sempill  and  her  husband  were  allowed  to  take 
the  name  and  arms  of  Sempill  only.'  She  died  in  1884,  aged  ninety-four, 
and  was  succeeded  by  her  cousin. 

XVII. — Sir  William  Forbes  Sempill  [1884-  ],  married  (1)  in 
1858  Caroline  Louisa,  daughter  of  Sir  Charles  Forbes,  and  has  issue  a 
daughter,  Catherine;  and  (2)  in  1862,  Francis  Emily,  daughter  of  Sir 
George  Abercromby,  and  has  issue  : — 

1.  George,  Master  of  Sempill,  married  Gwendolen  Prodgers,  and  has 

issue — 

(1).  William  Francis,  b.  1893. 
(2).  Gwendolen  Janet,  b.  1897. 

2.  Douglas,  Captain  in  the  Seaforth  Highlanders,  who  was  specially 

mentioned  for  his  valour  at  Magersfontein    [llth   December, 
1899]. 

3.  William,  who  died  in  infancy. 

4.  Robert  Abercrouiby. 

5.  Arthur  Lionel  Ochoncar,  Lieutenant  Pi.N.,  b.  1877. 

2.  Evelyn  Courtenay,  wlio  married  in  1894,  Captain  Duncan  Vernon 

Pirie,  M.P. 

3.  Gertrude  Emily. 

He  married  (3)  Mar}^  Beresford  Sherbrooke. 

Arms.— Arg.  a  chevron  cheque  gu.  and  of  the  field,  between  three 
bugle  horns,  sa.,  garnished  of  the  second.  Crest — A  stag's  head  ppr. 
attired  arg.  Supporters — Two  ratch-hounds  sa.,  collared  gu.  Motto — 
Keep  Tryst. 

'  Burke's  Peerage. 


CHAPTER   Xir. 
Historical  Families  Connected  with  Kilbarchan. 

"  I  witness  fellow  earth-meu  surge  and  strive  ; 

Assemblies  meet  and  throb  and  part  ; 

Death's  soothing  finger,  sorrow's  smart  ; 
— All  the  vast  various  moils  that  mean  a  workl  alive." 

-Thomas  Hardy. 

Knox  of  Ranfnrly  [1440-1 CG6]  and  Knox  of  Selvieland  [1320-1627]— Sempill  of  Beltrees  and 
Thirdpart  [1558-1810]— Houstoim  of  Johnstone  [1645-1733]— Napier  of  Blackstoun  [1650?- 
1843]— Macdowall  of  Castle  Sample  and  Carnith  [1727-  J— Napier  of  Milliken  [1733-1886] 
—Harvey  of  Castle  Semple  [1810  \-  ]— Captain  Stirling  of  Glentyan  [1817-72]— Speir  of 
Blackstoun  [1843-         ]. 

The  families  mentioned  in  this  chapter,  though  they  did  not  enjoy 
baronial  rank,  and  were  not  connected  with  Kilbarchan  during  so  many 
generations  as  the  three  dealt  with  in  the  former  chapter,  have  neverthe- 
less occupied  leading  positions  in  the  parish,  and  some  of  their  members 
have  played  distinguished  parts  in  Parliament,  and  in  the  work  of  ex- 
tending the  boundaries  of  tlie  British  Empire. 


I. — Tlie  Knoxes  of  Rwifurly  and  Selvieland} 

The  family  name  of  Knox,  derived  apparently  from  the  Gaelic  word 
Cnoc,  meaning  a  hillock,  is  not  an  uncommon  one  in  several  parts  of 
Scotland.  In  Renfrewshire  there  were  at  least  three  historical  families 
of  the  name — the  Knoxes  of  Knoc  (a  place  between  Paisley  and  Ren- 
frew), the  Knoxes  of  Ranfurly,  and  the  Knoxes  of  Selvieland. 

About  the  year  1234  the  lands  of  Knoc  were  owned  by  Dungalus, 
son  of  the  Sheriff  of  Lennox,  and  IMatilda  his  wife,  who  parted  with  their 
possession  to  the  monks  of  Paisley  in  exchange  for  a  part  of  the  Abbot's 

'  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  Horatius  Bonar  of  Ranfurly  for  the  information  regarding  the  Knoxes 
here  given,  for  the  notes  on  Ranfurly  included  in  the  next  chapter,  and  for  the  ground  plan  of 
Ranfurly  Castle. 

223 


224  KILBARCHAN. 

Inch  or  Isle,  lying  between  the  Curt-Lochwuinoch  and  the  Gryffe,  near 
Walkinshaw.^  It  seems  likely  that  Gryffe  was  the  name  then  applied  to 
the  stream  formed  by  the  Cart-Lochwinnoch  and  the  Gryffe  after  their 
confluence — it  is  now  known  as  Black  Cart.  During  the  reign  of 
Robert  III.  (1390-1406),  one  Kobert  Knox  received  a  royal  charter  con- 
firming to  him  the  lands  of  Knoc  within  the  liberty  of  Renfrew,"  and 
thus  became  Knox  of  that  ilk.  Possibly  the  Knoxes  of  Ranfurly  are 
descended  from  this  Knox  of  Knoc,  at  all  events  the  uncommon  name  of 
"  Uchter"  was  a  favourite  one  in  both  families. 

I. — The  first  Knox  of  Ranfurly  of  whom  tliere  is  any  record  is  John 
Knokkis  of  Ranforle,  who  in  1440  granted  to  James,  son  of  John 
Crawfurde  of  Giftartlands,  the  lands  of  Barbethe  in  the  lordship  of 
Ranferlie,  and  Barony  of  Renfrew.^ 

II. — John  [ab.  1474],  heir  of  ti>e  above  and  styled  "  of  Craiganys," 
granted  a  disposition  in  favour  of  his  son  Uchtred,  of  the  20  merk  land  of 
Ranfurly  and  the  100  shilling  land  of  Grifis  Castell,  reserving  for  himself 
a  liferent,  and  for  his  wife  if  she  survived  him  her  tierce  ;  the  reddendo 
for  Ranfurly  was  ward  and  relief  and  suit  at  Renfrew  Court,  and  for 
Gryffe  Castle  a  red  rose  at  the  Feast  of  St.  John  the  Baptist.* 

III. — Uchtred  [1474-  ],  was  accused  about  1509  of  attacking 
and  wounding  Sir  John  Ketchen,  Presbyter  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of 
Sempill,  in  presence  of  the  Sacrament.  The  offence  was  considered  a  very 
grave  one,  and  the  laird  had  to  pay  a  fine  as  civil  damages,  and  was 
ordered  to  go  to  Rome  to  get  absolution  from  the  Pope.^  He  is  probably 
the  same  as  Uchtrede  Knox  of  Cragyns,  who  acted  as  one  of  the  arbiters 
in  the  dispute  between  the  Burgh  of  Renfrew  and  the  Abbey  of  Paisley." 

According  to  David  Crawford,  he  married  Agnes,  daughter  of  Lord 
Lyle  of  Duchal. 

IV. — John  [  -1536],  son  of  the  above,  is  styled  "of  Ardman- 
well,"  '  in  the  Parish  of  Kippen.  It  was  there  he  died,  leaving  in  his  will 
four  pence  annually  for  the  fabric  of  St.  Mungo's,  Glasgow,  and  directing 
that  his  body  should  be  buried  in  his  church  of  Kilbarchan.' 

' /vey.  Je  Pass.,  pp.  178-180.  -  Robertson's //idex,  p.  137.     No.  4. 

=  Raj.  Mag.  Sig.,  iii..  No.  25!).         ■•  Ibid.,  i..  No.  IKiG.         ^Protocol  Reg.  of  Dioc.  of  Glasg.,  ii.,  325. 

'^Rcg.  de  Pass.,  p.  406.  'Red  Book  of  Meuteifh,  ii.,  p.  207.         '  Commisx.  of  Dunblane. 


HISTORICAL  FAMILIES  CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  •225 

V. — UcHTRED  [1536-53],  married  Janet  Sempill,  by  whom  he  had  a 
son,  John,  and  two  daugliters,  of  whom  Janet  the  younger  married  James 
Fleming  of  Barochan. 

VI. — John  [1553-94],  married  Euphemia  Galbraith  of  Kilcroich,  by 
whom  he  had  six  sons;  of  whom  Uchtred,  the  eldest,  predeceased  his 
father,  leaving  issue;  Andrew  graduated  at  Glasgow  in  1579,  and  was 
Minister  successively  at  Lochwinnoch  and  Paisley,  and  afterwards 
Bishop,  first  of  the  Isles  and  then  of  Raphoe  ;  the  others  were  Robert, 
William,  Patrick,  and  James.  The  latter  was  tutor  or  guardian  to  his 
nephew,  John. 

Uchtred,  the  heir  (ob.  1589),  married  Margaret,  daughter  of  George 
Maxwell  of  Newark,  and  had  issue  three  sons  and  three  daughters:  — 
John,  George,  Alexander,  Susanna,  Margaret,  and  Jane.  The  last  men- 
tioned married  John  Porterfield  of  Duchal. 

VII. — John  [1594-1G31],  grandson  of  John,  VI.,  got  a  conveyance  of 
Ranfurly-Knox,  Gryffe  Castle,  and  Nether  Craigends,  from  his  grand- 
father, who  reserved  a  liferent  and  a  tierce.  It  was  he  who  occasioned 
a  tumult  in  Kilbarchan  Church,  and  was  accused  of  slaying  his  uncle.' 
In  1(331  he  and  his  eldest  son  entered  into  an  arrangement  "  for  the  weill 
and  standing  of  his  hous,"  by  which  the  son  entered  into  possession  of  the 
family  estates,  including  Ardmanwell  and  Knox-Munnock,  obliging  him- 
self to  pay  his  father's  debts. 

This  laird  married  Annabella,  daughter  of  Blair  of  that  ilk,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons,  Uchtred  and  Tliomas,  and  two  daughters, 
of  whom  Euphemia  married  Thomas  Rollock,  and  Jean  married  Robert 
Mure  of  Caldwell. 

VIII. — UcHTRKD  [1031-65],  was  under  the  necessity  of  selling  the 
Renfrewshire  estates.  William  Cuninghame  of  Craigends  bought  Nether 
Craigends  in  1633,  and  Lord  Cochran,  afterward  Earl  of  Dundonald, 
bought  Ranfurly  and  Gryffe  Castle  in  1665.  The  laird  spent  the  rest  of 
his  days  at  Ardmanwell  and  at  Keyston  in  the  same  neighbourhood. 

He  married  (1)  Isobel,  daughter  of  Robert  Fairlie  of  Braid,  and  {-2) 
Jean,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Mure  of  Rovvallan.^  He  had  a  son 
William,^  and  a  daughter  Helen,  who  in  1688  married  John  Cuningliam 
of  Caddell. 


'  Anie,  p.  62.  -  Bisi.  of  Euwallan.  ^  St i ding  Records,  Oct.,  1726. 

e2 


226  KILBARCHAN. 

In  a  disposition  in  favour  of  Uchtred  Knox  in  1666  occurs  the 
name  of  "John  Knox  of  Armanwell."  He  was  possibly  a  brother  of 
Uchtred,  VIII. ,  and  may  have  been  the  John  Knox  who  did  "zealously 
manage  and  help  forward  the  work  of  the  Lord,"  at  Kippen  in 
Covenanting  times.^ 

According  to  Laing  and  Dr.  Hume  Brown,  Knox,  the  Reformer,  was 
in  no  way  connected  with  this  family. 

The  Earl  of  Ranfurly  claims  descent  from  the  Knoxes  of  Ranfurly. 


Knox  of  Selvieland. 

From  a  charter  in  the  possession  of  Colonel  Cuninghame,  Belmont, 
Ayr,  headed,  "  Coppie  of  Sewilands  Orignall  Chartour,"  it  would  appear 
that  a  Knox  possessed  Selvieland  previous  to  the  year  1.320. 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  this  charter  : — 

Unto  all  whom  it  may  concern,  Walter,  Steward  of  Scotland,  greeting  :  Be  it  known 
that  we  have  given  and  by  this  charter  confirm  to  Gilbert,  son  of  the  late  Uchtred  Knox, 
for  his  homage  and  service  the  whole  of  our  land  named  Sewingland  in  the  Barony  of 
Renfrew  :  To  be  had  and  to  be  held  by  the  aforesaid  Gilbert,  and  Christian,  his  spouse,  and 
their  heirs,  of  us  and  our  heirs  in  fee  freely,  etc.,  in  hill  and  plain,  in  road  and  path,  etc., 
etc.  Beginning  at  the  mouth  of  Kert  Loughiniough  and  descending  as  far  as  the  water  of 
Gryfl' through  all  the  boundaries  of  the  aforesaid,  with  lands,  mills,  multures,  and  all  per- 
tinents, doing  therefor  to  us  the  service  of  half  a  bowman  in  the  army  of  the  King  of  Scot- 
land, and  of  suit  at  our  Court  of  Renfrew  for  all  service  and  secular  demand ;  and  1,  Walter, 
and  my  heirs  shall  warrant  and  defend  Gilbert  and  his  heirs  ;  In  witness  whereof  we  affix 
the  impress  of  our  seal  to  this  charter  which  is  further  witnessed  by.  Sir  William  Fleming 
of  Barachan,  Alan  of  Cathcart,  Kt.,  William  of  Cathcart,  Kt.,  Finlay  of  Houston,  Kt., 
James  Cunningham,  James  Stewart,  William  Knox,  Robert  Sempill,  and  many  others. 

There  is  no  record  extant  dealing  with  the  family  between  1320  and 
1518.     After  that  the  succession  is  as  follows  : — 

I. — John  [1518-  ],  married  Elizabeth  Macgill,  and  granted  a 
disposition  in  favour  of  his  son,  which  was  confirmed  by  King  James  V., 
15th  June,  1520. 

II. — John  [  -1574],  married  EHzabeth  Walkiushaw,  aud  had 
issue. 


Ure's  Narrative  of  the  Rising. 


HISTORICAL  FA:\IILIES   CONNECTED   WITH   KILBAECHAX.  227 

IIL — Thomas  [1574-92],  married  (l)  Margaret  Wallace,  (2)  Margaret 
Stewart,  and  (3)  Barbara  Sempill,  and  had  issue, — two  sons  and  a 
daughter. 

IV.--W1LLIAM  [1592-1624],  married  (l)  Margaret  Maxwell,  and  (2) 
Margai'et  Dalmahoy,  and  left  issue. 

V. — Alexander  [1624-27],  sold  Selvieland  to  the  Brisbanes,  who 
held  it  for  nearly  a  hundred  years. 

II. — Sempill  of  Beltrees. 

Though  the  lands  of  Beltrees,  from  which  this  family  takes  its 
territorial  designation,  are  in  Lochwinnoch,  yet  Kilbarchan  has  an  equal, 
perhaps  a  stronger  claim,  to  any  credit  that  may  be  reflected  from 
this  branch  of  the  Sempills.  The  family  owned  Thirdpart  of  Auchinames 
before  1579,  and  in  1650  the  mansion-house  there  became  their  head- 
quarters. In  1678  all  their  proprietary  interest  in  Beltrees  ceased  with 
the  sale  of  the  superiority.  It  was  in  Kilbarchan  Church  that  Francis 
and  James  Sempill  of  Beltrees  had  to  do  presbyterian  penance  in  1649 
for  a  breach  of  the  Covenant.  The  fourth  laird  resided  at  Burnfoot  in 
1681,  and  the  sixth  laird  took  an  active  part  in  the  rebuilding  of 
Kilbarchan  Church  in  1724.  Ptobert  Sempill  built  for  himself  Beltrees 
Cottage,  then  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village  of  Kilbarchan,  where  he 
spent  the  evening  of  his  long  life,  and  where  he  died.  At  Thirdpart  his 
son,  Kobert,  the  last  male  representative  of  the  family,  was  born  in  1726. 
It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  in  spite  of  the  designation  Beltrees,  this  was, 
latterly  at  least,  a  Kilbarchan  rather  than  a  Lochwinnoch  family. 

I.—  John  Sempill  [  -1579],  was  a  son  of  the  Great  Lord  Sempill 
by  his  second  wife,  Elizabeth  Carlyle.  He  received  from  his  father  in 
patrimony  Beltrees,  and  perhaps  also  Thirdpart.  Though  he  was  ap- 
pointed Provost  of  the  Collegiate  Church  of  Castle  Sempill,  it  is  very 
unlikely  that  he  even  attempted  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  office,  and, 
according  to  himself,  he  never  even  enjoyed  the  endowment.  It  was  in 
quite  a  different  walk  of  life  that  he  was  destined  to  shine.  He  attended 
Queen  Mary's  Court,  where  his  sprightliness  in  the  dance  gained  for  him 
the  title  of  John  the  Dancer.'  His  marriage  with  Mary  Livingstone,  a 
maid  of  honour,  seems  to  have  created  some  sensation  : — 

■  Knox's  History,  ii.,  pp.  415-0. 


228  KILBARCHAX. 

Jan.  9,  15G4-5.  My  lord  of  Bedford  is  marvellously  desired  to  be  here  at  the  mar- 
riage of  Marie  Liveston  to  John  Simple,  who  shall  be  sent  to  desire  him.  Simple  was  born 
in  England,  and  had  an  English  mother.  So  it  is  much  spoken  of  that  an  Englishman 
should  marry  one  of  the  four  Maries.     (Randolphe  to  Cecil). ^ 

The  young  couple  received  I'lom  their  Royal  Mistress  large  grants  of  land 
in  the  counties  of  Bute,  Ayr,  Fife,  and  Aberdeen.  In  1577  Beltrees  was 
accused  of  being  art  and  part  in  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate  the  Regent 
Morton,  and  being  put  to  the  torture,  some  sort  of  confession  was  wrung 
from  him.  His  wife  bore  him  four  children,  James,  Artliur,  John  and 
Dorothy.  The  marriage  contract  and  documents  relating  to  a  law  suit 
in  which  his  widow  was  engaged  are  extant." 

II. — Sir  James  [1579- 1G26],  was  brought  u{)  along  with  King  James, 
who,  though  possibly  the  younger  of  the  two,  was  his  godfather.  They 
were  educated  under  the  celebrated  scholar,  George  Buchanan.  It  is  said 
that  young  Beltiees  had  to  sutler  at  the  tutor's  hands  chastisement  for 
the  young  King's  misdemeanours.  Sempill  completed  his  studies  at  St. 
Andrews,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  scholarly  but  dispu- 
tatious Andrew  Melville.  By  this  friendship  hangs  a  tale.  Sempill  acted 
as  amanuensis  to  the  King  when  writing  the  Basilicon  Doron,  which 
appeared  in  1599.  Tlie  work,  of  which  there  were  to  be  only  seven  copies 
printed,  contained  the  King's  advice  to  his  son  and  heir-apparent,  Prince 
Henry  ;  in  it  there  occurred  such  sentiments  as  these — no  man  is  more  to 
be  hated  of  a  King  than  a  proud  Puritan — parity  among  ministers  cannot 
agree  with  a  monarchy — Puritans  are  pests  in  the  common  weal  of  Scot- 
land ;  the  young  prince  was  warned  that  the  ministers  were  seeking  to 
establish  a  democracy  in  Scotland  and  to  become  t ribuni  i^lebis  themseWes, 
and  was  advised  to  make  none  his  friends  but  those  who  had  been  loyal 
to  Queen  Mary.  Sempill  showed  the  book  or  passages  from  it  to  his 
friend  Andrew  Melville,  who  spread  the  news.  The  Presbyterians  took 
alarm,  and  grave  political  trouble  seemed  for  a  time  imminent.  Even  by 
this  breach  of  confidence  Sempill  did  not  forfeit  the  King's  favour.  On 
his  return  from  London,  where  he  was  Scottish  Agent,  he  was  made  a 
Knight  Bachelor.  In  1601  he  was  ambassador  at  Paris,  and  through  his 
influence  Andrew  Melville  was  released  from  imprisonment  in  the  Tower. 

In  the  ecclesiastical  controversies  of  the  time  Sempill  took  no  incon- 
siderable part.    His  longest  poem,  which,  with  additions  by  his  son,  extends 

'  Calendar  of  Scottish  Papers.  *  Lochvnnnoch  (A.  and  H.  Collections),  ii.,  Nos.  182,  191,  195. 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES   CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  229 

to  872  lines,  called  The  Packman's  Paternoster,  sets  forth  in  a 
popular  form  the  usual  arguments  against  the  Roman  practice  of 
rehearsing  Latin  prayers.  His  more  serious  controversial  tractates,  in 
which  he  ranges  himself  on  the  side  of  Melville  against  such  opponents  as 
Tilenus,  Scaliger  and  Selden,  show  that  he  Wiis  in  close  touch  with  the 
learning  and  learned  of  his  time,  and  that  in  spite  of  royal  influence  he 
was  a  staunch  Presbyterian.  He  is  credited  with  writing  several  erotic 
poems  which  are  of  course  in  the  usual  strain  : — 

Wilt  thou,  remorseless  fair  ! 

Still  laugh  while  I  lament. 
And  shall  thy  chief  contentment  be 

To  see  me  mal-content  ? 

lu  1602  Sir  James  was  appointed  Sheriff-Substitute  of  Renfrewshire, 
possibly  by  his  kinsman,  Lord  Sempill,  the  Hereditary  Sherift";  it  may 
have  been  in  this  capacity  that  it  fell  to  him  to  make  arrangements  for  tlie 
reception  of  the  King  when  he  visited  the  Abbey  of  Paisley  in  1617.  The 
speech  of  "  the  prettie  boy  of  9  yeeres  age  '  is  evidently  from  his  pen, 
and  the  youthful  orator  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  the  Sheriff's  children. 
In  the  year  1603  the  King,  with  advice  of  his  Council,  gave  to  Sir  James 
"ane  Jewell — to  witt,  ane  carcatt  and  tabulat  sett  with  ane  carbuncle  of 
ane  diamond,  and  ane  grite  precious  rubie,  and  round  about  with 
diamondis  .  .  .  pertening  to  umquhyll  his  Heynes  derrest  moder."  ' 
That  this  was  not  the  only  precious  possession  in  the  family,  we  learn 
from  Lady  SempIU's  will,  by  which  she  leaves  to  her  daughter,  Lady 
Arkinglas,  "ane  gown  of  flourit  velvot,  ane  doublat  and  skirt  of  purpor 
flourit  velvot;"  to  Mareoun,  a  servant,  "ane  cheynze  of  gold  wt.  ane 
knap  in  forme  of  pig  at  the  end  thairof." 

Sir  James  married  in  1594,  Egidia  or  GeiUis  Elpliinstoun  of  Blyths- 
wood.  They  had  a  family  of  two  sons  and  five  daughters;  of  the  latter, 
one  married  Campbell  of  Ardkinglas,  and  another  M'Farlaud  of  Arrochar. 

in. — Robert  [1626-166  ?],  served  as  an  officer  in  the  Royal  army 
during  the  Civil  War.  He  became  involved  in  serious  financial  difficulties 
through  confiscations  and  fines,  and  though  he  lived  to  sliare  in  the 
rejoicings  at  the  Restoration,  his  losses  were  never  made  good.  As 
already  mentioned,  he  made  additions  to  a  poem  written  by  his  father, 

■  Reg.  of  Ptiinj  Voua.,  Feb.  3,  1603. 


230  KILBARCHAN. 

and  wrote  the  "Elegy  on  Habbie  Simson,"  and  the  "Epitaph  on  Sanny 
Briggs,  nephew  to  Habbie  Simson,  and  butler  to  the  laird  of  Kilbarchan." 
He  married  Mary  Lyon  of  Auldbar,  and  they  had  at  least  two 
children,  Francis,  the  heir,  and  Elizabeth,  who  married  Sir  George 
Maxwell  of  Newark. 

IV. — Francis  [l66M(i8l(5)],  and  a  relative  James,  either  an  uncle  or 
a  brother,  were  officei's  in  the  Scottish  army  led  by  the  Eai'ls  of  Loudon 
and  Lanark,  which  exceeded  their  commission.  For  this,  the  Sempills 
had  to  submit  to  church  discipline  in  Kilbarchan  Kirk.'  Francis  was  not 
so  rigid  a  Presbyterian  as  his  grandfather,  for  he  acknowledged  the 
Presbytery  of  Curates.^ 

Having  before  1677  obtained  the  appointment  of  Sheriff-Substitute 
for  Renfrewshire,  it  fell  to  him  to  deal  with  the  extreme  Presbyterians. 
When  engaged  in  the  arrest  of  one  "Walter  Scot  at  Renfrew,  he  was 
subjected  to  very  rough  treatment,  to  which  he  humourously  alludes  in 
one  of  his  poems, — 

But  yet  in  hopes  of  some  relief, 

A  rade  I  made  to  Arinfrew ; 
"Where  they  did  bravely  buff  my  beef, 

And  made  my  body  black  and  blew. 

In  his  time  the  family  fortunes  suffered  yet  further  reduction,  and  the 
superiority  of  Beltrees  had  to  be  sold  in  1677-8. 

The  following  effusions  of  varying  merit  have  been  ascribed  to  him: — 
1,  The  Banishment  of  Poverty ;  2,  Lines  to  the  Duke  of  Albany  (K. 
James  VII.  and  II.)  at  his  Coming  to  Scotland ;  3,  On  the  Birth  of  the 
Princess  Mary  (Consort  to  William  HI.) ;  4,  A  Discourse  between  Law 
and  Science  ;  5,  A  Song  called  Old  Langsyne ;  6,  A  Christmas  Cai-ol  ; 
7,  The  Blythsome  Wedding ;  8,  She  Raise  and  Loot  Me  In  ;  9,  Maggie 
Lauder.  In  the  first  three  of  these  the  author's  evident  purpose  is  to 
gain  the  favour  of  the  Duke  of  York ;  but  any  hopes  he  had  of  a  more 
lucrative  appointment  than  his  Sheriffship  were  doomed  to  disappointment. 

The  reputation  as  a  poet  which  Sempill  enjoyed  was  very  likely  due 
to  his  impromptu  verses,  rather  than  to  his  sustained  efforts.  It  is  said 
that  while  still  a  boy  he  was  urged  by  his  grandfather  to  turn  his  atten- 
tion to  vei'se-making,  and  after  a  few  minutes'  thought,  he  rather 
surprised  the  old  gentleman  by  giving  utterance  to  the  following  purpose- 
ful doggerel : — 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES    CONXECTED    WITH    KILBARCHAX.  231 

Thair  livit  thrie  lairds  into  the  west, 
And  thair  names  were  Beltrees  : 
An'  the  Dei!  wad  tak'  twa  awa', 
The  thrid  wad  leive  at  ease. 

The  legend  says  that  Sir  James  "  straikit  his  grandson's  head,  but  nippit 
his  lug."  Several  epitaphs  ascribed  to  Francis  Sempill  are  not  destitute 
of  other  merits  besides  the  rather  broad  humour  most  appreciated  in  his 
day. 

He  married  his  cousin,  Jean  Campbell  of  Ardkinglas,  and  had  at 
least  two  sons,  Robert,  the  heir,  and  James. 

V. — Robert  [1681  (5)-1713],  suftering  much  from  financial  em- 
barrassment, made  a  journey  to  Ireland,  and  perhaps  instituted  legal 
proceedings,  in  the  hope  of  regaining  certain  Irish  possessions  wliich  the 
family  had  lost  during  Cromwell's  government.  His  eftbrts  were  not 
successful.  Though  not  a  poet,  yet  being  an  exceedingly  handsome  man, 
he  was  a  subject  of  verse.  Reference  is  made  to  him  in  the  following 
lines  : — 

Cum  ben  Bishoptoun,  ben  cum  Blair, 

And  ben  cum  Beltrees,  the  flower  of  them  thair. 

He  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Pollok  of  Pollok,  and  had  issue  a  son, 
Piobert,  and  three  daughters. 

VI. — PtOBERT  [1713-87],  went  abroad,  probably  as  a  sailor,  in  the 
hope  of  retrieving  the  family  fortunes.  In  a  letter  written  to  liis  mother 
from  Edinburgh  [1710],  where  he  was  watching-  a  law  plea  for  his  father, 
he  asks  for  clothing,  as  he  is  reduced  to  one  shirt.  He  was  a  burgess  of 
Renfrew,  and  Collector  of  Cess  for  the  county  [1716].  He  took  an  active 
part  in  connection  with  the  rebuilding  of  Kilbarchan  Kirk  [1724],  being- 
one  of  a  committee  of  five  to  whom  all  the  negotiations  were  entrusted. 
The  annual  rental  of  his  propei'ty  was  £271,  and  five  pews  to  the  left  of 
the  pulpit  were  allocated  to  him.  The  built-up  door  on  the  south  wall  was 
known  as  the  Beltrees  door.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  subject  of  dispute, 
as  the  minister  and  another  were  appointed  to  deal  with  him  anent  it. 
The  inference  from  most  of  the  entries  referring  to  it  is,  that  though 
formed,  it  was  never  used,  yet  in  1791  there  is  a  charge  of  10s.  for  build- 
ing it  up.  Like  his  father,  he  visited  Ireland  in  the  hope  of  regaining 
possession  of  the  family  estates,  but  he  also  was  disappointed.  In  1758, 
we  may  be  sure,  not  without  the  greatest  reluctance,  Thirdpart — including 


232  KILBARCHAN. 

Hall  or  proper  Tliirdpart,  Watersyde,  Faalds,  Corbets,  Drygate,  Hardgait 
and  Margonhill — was  sold  to  Colonel  Macdowall  of  Castle  Sample.  In 
1777,  Sempill  acquired  a  feu — 34  falls  of  the  Quarry  or  Meadow  Park — • 
at  ail  annual  payment  of  22s.  2d.,  and  there  built  the  house  now  known 
as  Beltrees  Cottage;  where  he  died  in  August,  1787,  aged  102  years. 

Robert  Sempill  collected  and  re-copied  his  grandfather's  poems,  and 
it  is  to  him  that  their  preservation  is  due.  There  is  evidence  that  he 
himself  wooed  the  Muse  ;  one  song,  "  Ramihes  " — about  a  maiden  and 
two  lovers,  one  young  and  the  other  old,  with  the  usual  denouement — is 
ascribed  to  him.  Robert  Sempill's  remini.scences  towards  the  evening  of 
his  life,  must  have  been  intensely  interesting  to  those  privileged  to 
hear  them — and  the  grandfathers  of  men  not  yet  old,  may  have  some- 
times been  amongst  his  audience.  He  had  been  an  eye-witness  of  the 
burning  of  the  witches  on  the  Gallow  Green  of  Paisley  in  1G97.  He  had 
seen  Peter  the  Great  at  Archangel.  During  his  long  life,  no  fewer  than 
six  successive  monarchs  occupied  the  British  throne. 

He  married  iu  1722,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Colonel  Cochrane  of 
Mainshill,  and  grand-niece  of  Lord  Cochrane  of  Dundonald,  and  had  a 
large  family.  Of  his  sons,  only  one,  Robert,  survived  hiin.  Of  his 
daughters 

1.  Ursula    married    Colonel    Collins    of    Bonaw\        Their    grandson, 

Hamilton  Collins,  married  Susanna  T)ow,  a  descendant  of 
Campbell  of  Ardkinglas,  who  was  a  grandson  of  Sir  James 
Sempill ;  he  succeeded  his  grand-uncle  in  1810. 

2.  Elizabeth  married  a  Cumberland   man   of  the   name   of  Gardner. 

Two  of  their  grand-children  were  alive  in  1849. 

3.  Annabella   married    Ebenezer   Campbell.       A   daughter   of   theirs 

married  John  Stewart,  a  merchant  in  Paisley  and  Greenock. 
Descendants  of  theirs,  it  is  believed,  are  still  in  Kilbarchan. 

4.  Jean,  who  inherited  all  her  father  possessed,  died  mimarrled  at 

Kilbarchan  in  1817,  aged  80  years. 

Vn.— Robert  [1787-1810],  was  born  at  Thirdpart  in  the  year  172G. 
He  never  owned  any  of  the  patrimonial  estate,  but  having  accumulated  a 
considerable  fortune  as  an  Edinburgh  brewer,  and  all  his  children  being 
dead,  he  appointed  his  grand-nephew  Collins,  his  heir,  on  condition  that 
he  assumed  the  name  of  Sempill.  His  desire  was  that  Castlebarns, 
Edinburgh,  his  property,  should  remain  to  support  the  family  of  Sempill 


HISTORICAL  FAMILIES   CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  233 

of  Beltrees.  Eight  years  sufBced  for  the  appointed  heir  to  squander  his 
inheritance,  and  Castlebarns  had  to  be  sold.  Robert  Sempill,  the  sixth  in 
direct  succession  from  John  the  Dancer,  the  fifth  from  Sir  James,  the 
friend  of  King  James  and  Andrew  Melville,  died  February  5th,  1810,  and 
was  buried  in  Colmlin  churchyard. 

Arms. — Arg.  a  chevron  cheque  gu.  and  of  the  field  betwixt  three 
bugle  horns  sa.  ;  in  chiefe  three  gelliflowers  of  the  second,  as  difference. 
Crest. — A  handing  holding  a  pistol.     Motto. — In  Loyaltie. 

According  to  George  Crawford,  the  difference  was  : — In  the  base  of 
the  third  bugle  a  rose  gu.  ;  and  according  to  Nisbet : — A  gillyflower. 


111. — Hoiistotm  of  John.stone. 

For  more  than  eighty  years,  1G45-1733,  during  the  most  stirring- 
time  in  the  annals  of  the  parish,  the  Houstouns  of  Johnstone  were  a 
Kllbar-chan  family.  When  they  left  the  parish,  they  took  with  them  as 
their  territor-ial  designation,  Johnstone,  a  Kilbarchan  place-name,  which 
they  still  preserve. 

I.— George  Houstoun  of  Johnstone  [1645-1710],  was  the  second 
son  of  Sir  Ludovic  Houstoun  of  Houston,  by  his  wife  Margaret,  daughter 
of  Patrick  Maxwell  of  Newark.  Sir  Ludovic  was  the  twelfth  in  descent 
from  Hugo  de  Padinan  [Pettinain  ?]  who,  in  the  time  of  Malcolm  lY. 
[1124-53],  received  a  grant  of  the  Barony  of  Kilpeter  from  Balduin  de 
Bigres,  a  vassal  of  Walter  the  High  Steward.  At  Kilpeter,  Hugo  erected 
a  stronghold  with  houses  adjoining  for  his  retainers,  which  came  to  be 
called  Hugh's  town,  hence  Houston.  Hugo's  grandson,  Hugh,  son  of 
Reginald,  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention.' 

About  1645  Sir  Ludovic  acquired  "  the  little  Mains  of  Johnstoun, 
with  grain-mill,  fuller's  mill,  tithes,  etc.,""  and  left  them  in  patrimony  to 
his  second  son,  George.  George  Houstoun  married  in  1671,  Elizabeth, 
daughter  of  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends.  They  had  a  very  large 
family,  fifteen  in  all,  of  whom,  however,  only  five  were  alive  at  the  time 
of  the  making  up  of  the  Poll  Tax  Roll.  The  youngest,  James  Houstoun, 
M.D.,  born  in  1690,  wrote  an  interesting  account  of  his  own  life.  He 
studied  at  Glasgow,   at  Edinburgh,   at  Leyden   (under  Boerhaave,  Rau, 

■  Ante,  p.  33.  *  Reij.  Mag.  Siy.  viii..  No.  2081. 

F2 


2.U  KILBARCHAN. 

Perizarius),  and  at  Paris.  He  enjoyed  the  acquaintance  of  the  celebrated 
Harvey,  whom  he  met  at  the  Hague,  at  the  British  A.tnbassador's  house/ 
The  Laird  of  Johnstone  was  a  rigid  Presbyterian  ;  and  his  house  was 
the  last  visited  by  John  Stirling  before  his  death.-  Jolmstone  House, 
which  was  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Cart,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Nether 
Johnstone,  is  described  by  a  contemporary  writer  "as  a  very  pleasant  and 
desirable  place,  not  far  from  the  water  of  Black  Cart,  a  good  old  house, 
good  old  planting,  gardens  and  enclosures."^ 

n. — Li'Dovic  [1710-27],  married  Agnes,  daughter  of  James 
Walkinshaw  of  that  ilk,  possibly  an  aunt  or  a  cousin  of  Clementina 
Walkinshaw,  who  figures  in  Mr.  Neil  Munro's  story,  The  Shoes  of 
Fortune.  He  left  two  sons,  George  and  Ludovic,  and  thi'ee  daughters, 
Jean,  Rachel,  and  Anne. 

III. — George  [1727-57],  took  an  active  part  in  the  rebuilding  of 
the  Parish  Church  of  Kilharchan  in  1724,  and  had  the  aisle  on  the  south 
wall  built  probably  over  the  graves  of  his  father  and  grandfather.  In 
1733,  he  sold  the  lands  of  Johnstone  to  James  Milliken,  but  reserved  the 
name  of  Johnstone,  by  which  his  other  property,  formerly  known  as  the 
"Old  Place  of  Quarrel  toun,"  or  "Easter  Cochran  Tower,"  was  afterwards 
designated.     He  died  unmarried,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  nephew. 

IV. — George  [1757-181(3],  son  of  Ludovic  and  Jean  Eankin  (born 
1719),  was  a  man  of  great  enterprise.  He  built  the  bridge  over  the  Cart, 
the  date  on  which  is  1770,  and  from  which  the  nucleus  of  the  Burgh  of 
Johnstone  took  its  earliest  name,  "  The  Brig  of  Johnstone."  In  1782,  he 
had  the  plan  of  the  modern  town  laid  off  and  the  feus  advertised.  He 
greatly  enlarged  his  estate,  and  worked  the  coal  on  it.  In  1771,  and 
again  in  1812,  he  made  additions  to  the  mansion  house,  with  such 
care,  that  there  is  preserved  at  Johnstone  Castle  perhaps  the  best  example 
of  a  mediaeval  stronghold  in  this  part  of  the  country. 

He  married  in  1778  (I)  Mary,  daughter  of  Colonel  William  Mac- 
dowall  of  Castle  Semple,  who  died  in  1782,  leaving  issue  : — 

1.  Ludovic. 

2.  William,  who  man-ied  Marion  Douglas,  daughter  of  Colonel  Russell 

of  Woodside,  and  left  issue  : — 

'  Dr.  Houstoun's  Memoirs.  ■  Ante,  pp.  82,  88  ^  Hamilton  of  Wishaw. 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES  CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  235 

(I)  George  Ludovic.  :         -  -. 

(1)  Maiy  Erskine. 

(2)  Anne  Margaret. 

And  (2)  Anne  Walklnsbaw,  who  died  in  1810. 

V. — Ludovic  [1816-62],  married  in  1809,  Anne,  eldest  daughter  of 
John  Stirhng  of  Kippendavie,  and  had  a  son  George,  who  died  in  1843, 
at  the  age  of  33.  At  the  two  elections  in  the  year  1837,  George  Hous- 
toun  was  returned  as  M.P.  for  Renfrewshire  in  the  Conservative  interest. 

VI. — George  Ludovic  [1862-  ],  son  of  William  Houstoun,  is 
seventh  in  descent  from  Sir  Ludovic  Houstoun  of  Houston  [1609-62],  and 
eighteenth  from  Hugo  de  Padiuan,  of  the  time  of  King  Malcolm  IV. 

Arms. — Or  a  chevron  cheque  az.  and  arg.  between  three  martlets  sa. 
Crest. — A  sand  glass  ppr.      Motto. — In  Time.     Supporters. — Two  hinds. 


IV. — Napier  of  Blachstone. 

This  family  was  descended  from  Adam,  sixth  son  of  John  Napier  of 
Merchiston,  the  inventor  of  logarithms. 

I. — Alexander  Napier  [ab.  1650],  son  or  grandson  of  Adam 
Napier,  married  Catherine,  sole  heiress  of  John  Maxwell  of  Blackstone, 
and  thus  acquired  the  estate.      They  had  two  sons — John  and  Alexander. 

II. — John  [ab.  1680-  ],  died  unmarried. 

III. — Alexander  [1700  ?-175u],  was  a  Captain  in  the  Scots  Guards. 
He  pulled  down  the  old  mansion-house,  erected  by  Al)bot  Shaw  and 
partly  destroyed  by  fire  alter  1730,  and  built  the  one  that  now  stands. 
Having  made  himself  conspicuous  by  being  in  command  of  a  party  of 
militia  at  the  time  of  the  Eebellion,  his  house  at  Blackstone  was  visited 
and  plundered  by  some  of  the  soldiers  of  Prince  Charlie's  army,  when 
quartered  at  Glasgow. 

He  married  Mary  Anna  Johnstone  and  had  issue. 

IV. — Alexander  [1750-1801],  his  son,  was  a  Captain  in  the  Foot 
Guards.  He  built  the  bridge  over  the  Cart  at  Blackstone  in  1762,  and 
greatly  improved  the  estate.  He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  the 
Ptev.  Henry  Millar,  and  had  issue  several  sons  and  daughters. 


236  KILBARCHAX. 

V. — Alexander  [1801-9],  was  a  Lieut.-Col.  of  the  92nd  High- 
landers, and  fell  at  Corunna.  He  left  no  issue,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
bi'other. 

VI. — William  [1809-43],  a  banker  in  Greenock,  lost  his  fortune 
through  the  failure  of  the  Renfrewshire  Bank.  In  1843  he  sold  Blackstone 
to  Thomas,  brother  of  Robert  Speir  of  Burnbrae  and  Culdees. 

Arms. — Arg.,  a  saltire  engiailed  between  four  roses  gu.,  with  a 
fleur-de-lis  as  difference.  Crest. — A  dexter  hand  holding  a  crescent  arg. 
]\[otto. — Sans  Tache. 


V. — Macdowall  of  Castle  Semph,  Garthland,  and  Carruth. 

I. — William  Macdowall  [1727-48],  was  the  fifth  son  of  Alexander 
Macdowall  of  Garthland,  Wigtonshire — an  ancient  and  powerful  family, 
though  their  reputed  ancestor  "  Dovall  of  Galloway,  who  lived  about 
230  B.C.,"  ^  is  more  than  probably  only  a  fiction.  He  entered  the  army 
and  rose  to  the  rank  of  Colonel.  In  1727  he  bought  the  barony  of  Castle 
Semple,  and  eight  years  later  pulled  down  the  house  that  had  stood  the 
siege  of  1560,  and  built  the  house  now  standing.  He  married  Mary  Tovie, 
daughter  of  Mrs.  James  Milliken  b\f  her  first  husband,  and  had  a  son, 
William.     By  a  second  marriage  he  had  two  sons. 

II. — William  [1748-8G],  purchased,  about  1760,  from  his  cousin, 
William,  the  family  estate  of  Garthland,  Wigtonshire ;  and  when  this 
cousin  died  in  1775,  he  became  titular  head  of  the  family.  He  made 
large  additions  to  his  Renfrewshire  estate,  and  by  deepening  the  Black 
Cart,  he  lowered  the  level  of  the  loch,  and  reclaimed  much  fertile  land." 
He  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  Graham  of  Airth,  great  grand- 
daughter of  the  great  Marquis  of  Montrose,  and  had  issue  eight  sons  and 
four  daughters,  of  whom  the  following  may  be  mentioned  :— 

1.  William. 

2.  James,  Provost  of  Glasgow,  whose  two  sons  purchased  part  of  the 

Renfrewshire  estates  in  1809. 

3.  Day  Hort,  b.  1753. 

4.  David,    who    married    Eleanor    Grant,    heiress   of  Arndilly,    and 

assumed  her  name. 

'  Seiuple's  Renfreu'shire,  p.  149.  "Ibid. 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES  CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  237 

1.  Mary,  who  married  George  Houstouti  of  Johnstone. 

2.  Anne,  who  married  Alexander  Cuninghame  of  Craigends. 

III. — William  [1786-1809],  was  M.P.  for  Renfrewshire  in  live 
parliaments.  Owing  to  losses  in  the  West  Indies  during  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  his  estates  had  to  be  sold.     He  died  in  1810,  without  issue. 

lY.— Day  Hout  [1809],  of  Walkinshaw,  brother  of  William,  III., 
purchased  Castle  Semple,  and  died  there  the  same  year.  He  married 
Wilhelmina  Graham  of  Airth,  and  had  issue — William,  Day  Hort,  Henry, 
and  three  daughters. 

v.— William  [1809-  ,  1820-36],  son  of  the  preceding,  sold  Castle 
Semple,  and  in  1820  purchased  Carruth.  He  married  Elizabeth  Dundas, 
and  died  without  issue  in  1836. 

YL— General  Day  Hort  [1836-1870],  brother  of  William,  V., 
succeeded  to  Carruth  in  1836,  and  to  Garthland,  Renfrewshire,  and  to 
the  superiority  of  Garthland,  Wigtonshire,  on  the  death  of  Lawrence, 
son  of  James,  Provost  of  Glasgow,  in  1842.  He  married  his  cousin, 
Eleanor  Grant  of  Arndillv,  and  died  without  issue. 

VII. — Henry  [1870-82],  brother  of  the  two  preceding,  married  in 
1839,  Isabella  Dennistoun  of  Golfliill,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  William,  who  died  unmarried. 

2.  Henry. 

3.  Day  Hort,  who  married  and  has  issue  a  son,  Victor  Henry  Charles, 

and  five  daughters. 
Also  three  daughters,  of  whom  one  has  issue. 

VIII. — Henry  [1882-  ],  married  Eleanor  Louisa,  daughter  of 
Sir  William  Maxwell,  sixth  Baronet  of  Monreith. 

Arms. — Az.,  a  lion  rampant  arg.,  collared  and  crowned  or.  Crest. — 
A  lion's  paw  erased,  holding  a  dagger  erect,  all  ppr.  Mottoes. — Fortis  in 
Arduis  [above  crest]  ;  Vincere  vel  Mori  [under  shield]. 


VI. — Milliken  Napier  of  MiUiken. 

I. — James  Milliken  [1733-41],  bought  in  1733  the  house  and  lands 
of  Johnstone  from  George  Houstoun,  and  in  ignorance  or  in  despite  of 


238  KILBAKCHAN. 

.the  minatory  verse,  Ps.  xlix.  11,  called  his  possession  by  his  own  name. 
He  married  Mary  Steven  of  St.  Kits,  W.  I.,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  William 
Macdowall  of  Castle  Semple,  and  had  issue  a  son,  James. 

11. — James  [1741-76],  made  great  improvements  on  his  esta,te,  by 
planting  and  enclosing  it.^  He  married  Joan,  daughter  of  Alexander 
Macdowall  of  Garthland,  Dumfries,  and  had  issue  two  sons,  who  died 
young,  and  two  daughters,  of  whom  the  elder,  Jean,  married  Colonel 
William  Napier  of  Culcreuch,  Stirlingshire,  and  had  issue,  Robert  John 
Milliken  Napier,  horn  1765,  and  Jean  Macdowall  Napier,  born  1771. 

The  Napiers  of  Culcreuch  were  descended  from  Robert  Napier,  son 
of  John  Napier  [1550-1617],  of  Merchiston,  Edinburgh,  the  inventor  of 
logarithms,  and  his  second  wife,  Agnes  Chisholm  of  Cromlix." 

HI. — Robert  John  Milliken  Napieu  [1776-180S],  succeeded  his 
grandfather.  He  was  a  Colonel  in  the  army,  and  in  command  at  the 
siege  of  Mangalore.  He  sold  Culcreuch  in  1778.  In  1786  he  married 
Anne,  daughter  of  Robert  Campbell  of  Downie,  Argyllshire,  by  whom  he 
had  a  son,  who  succeeded. 

IV. — Sir  William  John  [1808-52],  was  in  1817,  served  heir  male 
general  of  Archibald  Napier,  great  grandson  of  John  Napier,  the  mathe- 
matician. Archibald,  the  eldest  son  of  John  Napier,  was  in  1627  created 
a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  in  the  same  year  a  peer.  On  the  death  of 
his  grandson,  Archibald,  third  baronet  and  third  baron,  in  1683,  the 
peerage  went  to  another  line,  but  the  baronetage,  after  being  long 
dormant,  was  discovered  to  belong  to  the  Napiers  of  Culcreuch.  William 
John  is  described  as  the  eighth  baronet.  He  married  Eliza  Christian, 
fifth  daughter  of  John  Stirling  of  Kippendavie,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  Robert  John. 

2.  John  Stirling,  who  married  Janet  Brown  of  Auchintorlie,  and  left 

issue ; — 

(1)  William  [1850-85]. 

(2)  John  Stirling,  Major,  A.  and  S.  Highlanders. 

(1)  Mary  Elizabeth. 
1.   Mary,  who  married  in  1836,  Robert  Speir  of  Culdees. 

'  Semple'a  Eeufrewshire  ;  also  Old  StatUtical  Account.  -Ante,  p.  198. 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES.  CONNECTED   WITH   KILBAKCHAN.  23& 

V. — Sir  Robert  John  [1852-84],  married  in  1850,  Anne  Adlercron 
of  Moyglai-e,  Meath,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  Archibald  Lennox,  b.  1855. 

2.  Robert  Francis,  who  died  in  1898,  of  wounds  received  at  Atbara, 

leaving  issue. 

3.  William  Edward  Stirling,  who  has  issue. 

1.  Anne,  who  married  Sir  John  Hay. 

2.  Aymee,  who  married  Sir  George  Clark. 

3.  Theodora  Evelyn. 

VI. — Sir  Archibald  Lennox,  married  in  1880,  Mary,  daughter  of 
Sir  Thomas  Fairbairn,  and  has  issue  : — 

1.  Alexander,  b.  1882. 

2.  Robert,  b.  1889. 

Arms. — Quarterly  :  1st  and  4th,  arg.,  a  saltire  engrailed  between 
four  roses,  gu.,  the  roses  barbed  vert  [for  Napier  of  Merchiston]  ;  2nd, 
az.,  a  lion  rampant  arg.,  crowned  or  [for  Macdovvall  of  Garthland]  ;  3rd, 
arg.,  a  fesse  az.,  voided  of  the  field  between  three  demi-lions  crowned,  gu. 
[for  Millikeu].  Crests. — 1st,  an  arm  grasping  an  eagle's  leg,  ppr.  [for 
Napier];  2Md,  a  demi-lion,  rampant,  gu.,  holding  in  his  dexter  fore  paw  a 
dagger  or  [for  Millikeu] ;  Supporters. — Two  eagles  with  their  wings 
closed,  ppr.     Mottoes. — Sans  tache  ;  Regarde  bien. 


VII.—Harrey  of  Cct^tle  Semple. 

The  Harveys  of  G*astle  Semple  are  descended  from  the  marriage  at 
Banff,  1st  December,  1618,  of  James  Harvey  of  Kilmundy  (who  claimed 
as  ancestor,  Robert  Fitz  Harvey  or  de  Herve,  an  officer  in  the  army  of 
WilHam  the  Conqueror),  and  Margaret  Baird  of  Auchmedden,  who  was  a 
lineal  descendant  of  the  Royal  House  of  Stewart. 

I. — John  Rae  Harvey  became  possessed  of  Castle  Semple  at  the 
beginning  of  last  century,  and  at  his  death  in  1820,  the  estate  pa.ssed  to 
his  elder  daughter,  Margaret,  who  was  with  her  sister  Elizabeth,  Countess 
of  Buchan,  his  only  surviving  issue.  Margaret  married  Major,  afterwards 
Colonel,  James  Octavius  Lee,  92nd  Gordon  Highlanders  (of  the  family 
of  Lee  of  Ditcliley,  Oxfordshire),  who  assumed  the  name  and  arms  of 
Harvey  by  Royal  Licence,  on  his  wife's  succession  to  the  property. 


240  KILBAKCHAN. 

II. — Margaret  [1820-53],  married  the  above  Major  James  Octavius 
Lee  in  1816,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  John  Rae. 

2.  James  Octavius. 

3.  Henry. 

1.  Catherine,  died  unmarried. 

2.  Margaret,  married  her  cousin,  Sir  Charles  Farquhar  Shand,  Chief 

Justice  of  the  Mauritius.  He  was  descended  from  the  Far- 
quhars  of  Gilmihiscroft,  Kyle,  and  from  the  Shands,  anciently 
Deschamps  or  de  Campo,  who  came  from  the  south  with  the 
Gordons  and  settled  in  Aberdeenshire.  Of  this  marriage  there 
is  issue : — 

(1)  James  Widdrington,  present  Laird. 

(2)  Charles  Farquhar,  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Colonel 

Angell. 

(3)  John  Auchmedden  Buird. 

(4)  Stuart  Gordon  Farquhar. 

(1)  Catherine  Lee  Harvey,  married  R.  MacEwen,  and  has 

issue. 

(2)  Jeanne    Somerset   Stuart,    married   Lieutenant  Francis 

Owen-Lewis  (killed   in  action  in   South  Africa,  189r*), 
and  has  issue. 

III. — John  IIae  Lee  Harvey  [1853-54],  died  without  issue,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  brother. 

IV. — James  Octavius  Lee  Harvey  [1854-72],  died  without  issue, 
and  was  succeeded  by  his  brother. 

V. — Henry  Lee  Harvey  [1872-83],  married  his  cousin,  Lady  Eliza- 
beth Erskine,  daughter  of  Henry,  12th  Earl  of  Buchan,  and  had  an  only 
child,  Alice,  who  died  in  early  youth. 

VI. — James  Widdrington  Shand-Harvey,  the  present  Laird,  who 
succeeded  his  uncle,  Henry  Lee  Harvey  in  1883,  and  can  count  among 
his  ancestors,  besides  those  already  mentioned,  the  Widdringtons,  settled 
in  Northumberland  before  the  Conquest ;  the  Hamiltons  of  Ballymadonell, 
■County  Donegal,  a  cadet  branch  of  the  Abercorn   family ;  the  Wrays  of 


HISTORICAL   FAMILIES   CONNECTED   WITH   KILBARCHAN.  241 

Glentworth,  Lincolnshire;  William,  fourth  Earl  of  Glencairn  ;  Sir  Basil 
Brooke  of  Colebrooke,  second  in  command  of  Lord  Mountjoy's  Expedition 
to  Ireland  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  and  is  collaterally  connected  with  the 
family  of  the  Earl  of  Leitrim  through  their  common  ancestors,  the 
Clements  of  Barkinny,  County  Cavan. 

He  married  Emily  Augusta  Rosina,  eldest  daughter  of  Geoi'ge 
Robinson,  Esq.,  grandson  of  Edward  Robinson  of  Havering-atte-Bower, 
Essex,  a  descendant  of  the  Robinsons  of  Ptokeby,  Yorkshire,  and  has 
issue  : — 

James  George  Gordon  Farquhar. 

Margaret  Emily  Lee  Harvey  Farquhar. 

Arms. — Gu.,on  abend  erminois  three  trefoils  slipped  vert  on  a  chief 
arg.  a  buck's  head  caboshed  az.  between  two  mullets  of  the  1st,  and  in 
the  sinister  chief  point  of  the  field  a  cross  patee  of  the  4th.  Crest. — Out 
of  a  crescent  or,  charged  with  a  buck's  head,  as  in  the  arms,  a  cubit  arm, 
ppr.,  the  hand  grasping  a  trefoil  slipped  erect  vert.  The  arm  charged 
with  an  ermine  spot  gu.     Motto. — Omnia  bene  [for  Harvey]. 

Az.,  a  boar's  head  couped  arg.,  three  mullets  gu.,  in  chief  of  the  2nd, 
with  a  border  ermine  charged  with  three  escutcheons  gu.  for  the  surname 
of  Hay.  Crest. — A  dove  volant  above  the  waters,  with  an  olive  branch 
in  her  beak,  ppr.     Motto. — Virtute  duce  comite  fortuna  [for  Shand]. 

VIII. — Cai>tai)i  Stirling  of  Glentijdn  [_1810-72]. 

James  Stirling  (b.  1789),  was  the  fourth  son  of  John  Stirling  of 
Kippendavie,  by  his  wife,  Mary,  daughter  of  William  Graham  of  Airth, 
and  grand-daughter  of  Sir  Henry  Stirling  of  Ardoch.  The  Stirlings  of 
Kippendavie  are  a  branch  of  the  Stirlings  of  Keir.  Captain  Stirling  was 
in  command  of  H.M.S.  Ferret,  which  acted  as  escort  to  the  BeUenyphon 
which  conveyed  Napoleon  to  St.  Helena.  He  purchased  Glentyan  from 
William  Napier  Milliken  in  the  year  1817. 

He  married  (l)  in  1820,  his  cousin,  Mary,  daughter  of  Day  Hort 
Macdowall  of  Castle  Semple  (ob.  1839);  and  (2)  in  1844,  his  cousin, 
Elizabeth  Christian  Dundas,  widow  of  William  Macdowall  of  Garthland. 
Captain  Stirling  made  large  additions  to  his  property,  and  greatly  changed 
the  general  plan  of  the  village  of  Kilbarchan  by  removing  the  houses  in 
Stirling  Street,  the  Cowloan,  the  Stackyard,  and  the  Merchant's  Close. 
He  died  in  1872,  and  Mrs.  Stirling  in  1884. 

02 


242  KILBARCHAN. 

Arms. — Arg.,  on  a  bend  sa.,  three  buckles  or,  in  chief  a  crescent  of 
the  second.  Crest. — A  Moor's  head  sa.,  banded  about  the  temples  arg. 
Motto. — Gang  forward. 


IX. — Speir  of  Blaclistone,  etc. 

I. — Thomas  Speir  of  Blackstone  [1843-74],  was  the  fourth  son  of 
Kobert  Speir,  third  laird  of  Burnbrae.  He  was  born  in  1801,  and  bought 
Blackstone  from  William  Napier  in  1843.  He  died  in  1874,  without 
issue. 

II. — Robert  Thomas  Napier  Speir  [1874-  ],  is  nephew  of  the 
above,  being  the  son  of  Robert,  fourth  laird  of  Burnbrae,  by  his  wife, 
Mary,  daughter  of  Sir  William  Milliken  Napier.  He  married  in  1868, 
the  Hon.  Emily,  daughter  of  the  second  Lord  Gilford,  and  has  issue — four 
sons  and  two  daughters.  The  heir,  Guy  Thomas,  bom  1875,  married 
Mary,  daughter  of  John  Fletcher  of  Saltoun,  and  has  issue. 

Arms. — Az.,  two  tilting  spears  in  saltire,  between  four  boar's  heads 
couped  or,  on  a  chief  arg.  a  mullet  between  two  ci'escents  gu.  Crest. — 
A  dexter  arm  in  armour  embowed,  wielding  a  tilting  spear,  all  ppr.. 
Motto. — Advance. 


CHAPER    XII  [. 
Places  and  Place  Names. 

Languages  are  the  pedigrees  of  nations. 

—Motto  at  Glasgow  ExhibUion. 
Once  more  we  find  place  names  to  be  the  best  source  of  information  regarding  the  long  by-past. 

— Bloch's  History  of  France. 

Earliest  inhabitants  of  Strathclyde — The  Damnonii — Celtic  Kingdom  of  Strathclyde — Gaelic 
becomes  the  vernacular— English  influences  after  1057— Classification  of  Place  Names- 
Phonetic  decay — Hybrid  derivations  defended — Alphabetical  list  of  names  and  possible 
explanations — The  Barbours  of  Auchinames  and  of  Law — The  Semples  of  Cartside — The 
Wallaces  of  Johnstone  —  Proprietors  of  Penneld — Ranfurly,  its  divisions,  Castle,  and 
antiquities — The  Speirs  of  Wardhouse — The  Montgomeries  of  Weitlands. 

In  the  Kilbarchau  place-names  we  encounter  problems  as  interesting  as 
they  are  difficult.  On  the  one  hand  we  cannot  help  wondering  how  the 
streams  and  hills,  the  moorlands  and  fields  obtained  the  names  by  which 
they  have  been  known  in  some  cases  for  hundreds  of  years  ;  on  the  other 
hand  the  explanations  given  are  often  as  diverse  as  the  authorities  who 
give  them,  and  there  are  many  cases  where  no  satisfactory  explanation 
has  as  yet  been  offered. 

Kilbarchan  being  part  of  Strathclyde,  has,  of  course,  shared  in  the 
changes  and  vicissitudes  which  constitute  the  romantic  story  of  that 
ancient  kingdom,  many  of  which  are  faithfully  recorded  in  its  place-names. 
From  these  names  we  learn  the  languages  which  wex-e  spoken  here,  and 
thei-efore  the  races  of  people  who  inhabited  the  district  for  the  last  two 
thousand  years. 

The  earliest  inhabitants  of  Strathclyde,  and  of  the  rest  of  the  country 
too.  of  whom  we  have  any  knowledge  are  known  as  the  Iberians  or  Firbolg. 
They  were  a  people  of  short  stature,  with  long  heads,  crisp  dark  hair, 
black  eyes,  and  swarthy  skins,  whose  fate,  whether  it  was  extermination 
or  absorption  or  slavery  that  they  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  invading 
Celts,  was  in  any  case  a  hard  one.  No  doubt  they  had  names  for  the 
islands  and  seas,  the  mountains  and  rivers  of  their  native  land,  and  these 

243 


244  KILBARCHAN. 

names  may  have  been  to  some  extent  adopted  by  their  successors,  to 
whose  minds  they  conveyed  no  meaning  and  in  whose  mouths  the  syllables 
became  so  distorted  that  in  course  of  time  they  would  be  beyond  the 
power  of"  recognition  by  even  the  most  sagacious  philologist.  Very  few 
place-names  in  Scotland  have  been  put  to  the  credit  of  the  Iberians,  and 
none,  we  believe,  with  anything  like  certainty. 

At  the  time  of  its  invasion  by  the  Romans,  a.d.  80,  the  northern 
part  of  Strathclyde  was  inhabited  by  the  Damnonii,  a  Goidelic  people, 
akin  to  the  inhabitants  of  Devon  and  Cornwall ;  while  the  remaining 
parts  were  occupied  by  Brythoiis,  a  later  immigration  of  the  Celts.  During 
the  Roman  occupation  the  Strathclyde  Britains  were  exposed  to  Roman 
or  continental  influences,  but  not  to  such  an  extent  that  they  adopted  the 
language  of  their  conquerors. 

After  the  withdrawal  of  the  Romans  the  Brythonic  Celts  drew  together 
and  formed  an  independent  kingdom,  with  frontiers,  however,  which  were 
neither  scientific  nor  permanent.  At  one  time  this  kingdom  may  have 
extended  along  the  western  sea  board  from  Dumbarton  to  Cornwall,  but 
later  it  had  so  shrunk  that  it  included  only  what  are  now  the  counties  of 
Dumbarton,  Renfrew,  and  Lanark.  The  capital  was  Alcluith  (Dumbarton). 
An  ingenious  author  ^  maintains  that  the  chivalrous  Arthur  was  King 
of  Strathclyde,  and  he  attempts  to  identify  some  places  not  far  from 
Kilbarchan  with  some  of  the  famous  places  mentioned  in  the  Arthurian 
legends. 

Strathclyde  retained  its  political  indejieudence  only  for  about  three 
or  four  hundred  years.  This  was  not  surprising  considering  the  extra- 
ordinary want  of  political  foresight  displayed  by  its  ruleis  in  so  often 
throwing  in  their  lot  with  the  side  which  turned  out  to  be  the  losers  in 
battle,  and  considering,  too,  that  it  was  surrounded  by  restless  and  enter- 
prising peoples  who  lived  but  to  make  war,  and  who  took  care  that 
Strathclyde  should  never  occupy  the  comparatively  safe  position  of  a 
neutral  state.  During  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  centuries  Strath- 
clyde was  again  and  again  over-run  by  hordes  of  Picts,  Scots,  Angles, 
Saxons,  Norwegians,  and  Danes,  some  of  whon),  forgetful  of  home  ties, 
made  new  homes  for  themselves  in  the  country  they  had  entered  as  allies 
or  invaders.  In  the  year  870,  Alcluith  was  captured,  after  a  siege  of  four 
months,  by  the  Viking  or  Northmen  under  Olaf  the  White,  King  of 
Dublin.      This  did   not   quite  end  the   kingdom  of  Strathclyde,  for  the 


J.  S.  Stii.ait-Glennie. 


PLACES   AND   PLACE   NAMES.  245 

title  of  King  or  Prince  survived  and  was  borne  by  several  who  afterwards 
ascended  the  Scottish  throne.  In  respect  to  supplying  the  heir-apparent 
to  the  throne  with  a  title,  Strathclyde  aftbrds  a  singular  and  interesting- 
parallel  to  Wales. 

According  to  Chalmers  the  Britains  of  Strathclyde,  after  the  fall  of 
their  capital,  left  their  country  in  a  body,  or  as  we  might  say  trekked,  and 
settled  near  their  racial  kindred  in  North  Wales,  where,  he  says,  their 
descendants  nine  hundred  years  later  could  be  distinguished  by  certain 
peculiarities  of  speech  and  person.  Whether  such  a  trek  took  place  or 
not,  it  is  certain  that  at  an  early  period,  perhaps  not  later  than  1000  A.D., 
the  Celtic  language  sjwken  in  Kllbarchan  was  of  the  Gaelic,  not  of  the 
Welsh  or  Cymric  type.  As  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Angles  and  Saxons, 
Danes  and  Norsemen,  as  well  as  Gaels,  found  Strathclyde  a  pleasant  place 
in  which  to  make  a  home,  the  variety  of  languages  spoken  in  Kilbarchan 
for  a  time  may  have  illustrated  anew  the  inconveniences  experienced  at 
the  Tower  of  Babel.  In  spite  of  rivals,  however,  the  Gaelic  language  held 
its  ground  long  enough  and  firmly  enough  to  give  to  many  places  the 
names  they  bear  to-day. 

The  churchmen  introduced  by  Queen  Margaret  after  1057,  the  settle- 
ment in  Renfrewshire  of  Walter,  son  of  Alan,  the  Steward,  after  1140, 
the  foundation  of  the  great  religious  house  at  Paisley  about  1163,  and  the 
acquisition  by  it  of  lands  in  Kilbarchan  under  Thomas  of  St.  Martin's 
gift  about  1177,  laid  Kilbarchan  open  to  irresistible  English  influences, 
and  the  Saxon  language,  or  a  dialect  of  it,  gradually  ousted  the  language 
of  the  Gael.  It  is  impossible  to  say  when  Gaelic  ceased  to  be  the 
vernacular  in  Kilbarchan  ;  if  we  judge  from  the  names  of  the  incumbents 
there  can  have  been  no  regular  religious  services  in  Gaelic  since  the 
Reformation,  though  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Mr.  John  Mac  Queen,  the 
vicar  before  1568,  and  Sir  Robert  Mac  Aulay,  chaplain  of  the  Lady 
Chapel  at  Ranfurly  in  1542,  may  have  made  use  in  their  ministrations  of 
what,  unless  their  patronymics  belie  them,  was  their  mother  tongue. 

The  brief  sketch  we  have  given  of  the  history  of  Strathclyde  shows 
the  variety  of  languages  to  which  appeal  may  be  legitimately  made  in 
seeking  for  solutions  to  the  problems  proposed  to  us  in  our  place-names. 
Considering  the  remarkable  longevity  of  such  names  it  is  not  impossible 
but  that  Iberian,  Brythonic,  Goidelic,  Norse,  Danish,  Anglo-Saxon, 
Latin,  and  Norman-French  may  have  contributed  to  their  formation. 
In  actually  dealing  with  the  names,  however,  we  shall  have  reason  to 
make  appeal  only  in  one  or  two   instances  to  languages  other  than  the 


246  KILBAKCHAN. 

Celtic  and  the  Saxon  ;  but  it  may  be  that  in  the  case  of  the  words  we 
have  been  compelled  to  leave  unexplained  a  derivation  should  be  sought 
in  some  of  the  other  languages  once  spoken  by  at  least  some  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Sti'athclyde. 

The  Kilbarchan  place-names  may  be  divided  into  four  (or  shall  we 
say  five  ?)  groups  : — 

I.  Names  applied  by  Cymric-speaking  inhabitants  of  Strathclyde. 
These  are  usually  names  for  natural  objects  and  for  the  most  ancient 
settlements  ;  e.g. — Bar,  Cart,  Gryffe,  Locher,  Penuld. 

II.  Names  applied  by  Gaelic-speaking  settlers ;  e.g. — Craigends, 
Auchans,  Auchinsale,  Auchincloich,  Auchinames. 

III.  Names  applied  by  Saxon  speaking  peoples  and  characterised  by 
at  least  one  Saxon  syllable  [1100-  ];  e.g. — Blacks-tozm,  J ohns-totm, 
Glads-^OH»,  Bar-/io//H,   Bar-/;///,   Boyds-^yarcZ,  Dry-gate. 

IV.  Names  traceable  to  the  Latin  and  probably  due  to  monkish 
influence  [after  1177];  e.g. — Green  [from  low  Lat.  Grenagium],  Mains 
[contraction  for  Demesne  from  L.  maneo]. 

V.  Names  generally  fanciful  applied  to  new  houses  by  their  inhabi- 
tants [nineteenth  century].  We  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to  men- 
tion or  to  attempt  to  explain  these. 

Place-names,  though  wonderfully  enduring,  are  by  no  means 
absolutely  permanent  and  stereotyped.  The  syllables  tend  to  change 
from  generation  to  generation  and  to  run  into  one  another,  especially  in 
the  mouths  of  people  whose  language  is  other  than  that  in  wdiich  the  name 
has  originated.  When  we  consider  that  some  names  have  been  at  the 
mercy  of  oral  tradition  for  centuries  after  they  were  first  applied,  and  that 
in  Kilbarchan  some  of  them  have  been  handed  on  by  a  Cymric-speaking 
people  to  Gaelic  speakers  and  then  again  to  Saxon  speakers,  who,  finding 
the  words  hard  to  pronounce,  involuntarily  changed  them,  or  under  the 
influence  of  fancied  resemblance  or  false  analogies  deliberately  deformed 
them,  the  marvel  is  that  the  older  names  retain  any  recognisable  trace  of 
their  origin.  We  find,  just  as  we  should  expect  to  find,  that  the  names 
which  have  most  eff'ectually  resisted  the  vicissitudes  they  have  thus  had 
to  encounter,  are  words  of  one  or  at  most  of  two  syllables,  the  veiy 


PLACES   AND   PLACE  NAMES.  247 

definiteness  and  simplicity  of  which  have  enabled  them  to  bid  defiance  to 
such  corrupting  influences  ;  e.g. — Bar,  Grif,  Cart,  Penuld. 

Many  of  the  Kilbarchan  names  are  undoubtedly  hybrids — that  is,  one 
part  belongs  to  one  language,  e.g.  Celtic,  and  the  other  part  to  another 
language,  e.g.  Saxon.  Such  derivations  are  regarded  by  philologists  with 
the  gravest  suspicion.  Yet  we  have  only  to  glance  back  on  the  past  of 
Kilbarchan  to  find  ample  justification  for  accepting  and  defending  some  of 
these  suspicious  hybrid  derivations.  E.g. — Bar,  meaning  a  head  or  hill, 
is  a  British  or  Goidelic  word.  It  was  once  applied  to  a  tract  of  country 
to  the  left  of  the  Kilbarchan  burn,  and  came  to  be  so  named  from  its 
chief  natural  feature,  viz.,  the  hill  now  known  as  Barhill.  "  Bar  in  Kilbar- 
chan "occurs  frequently  in  the  Sempill  charters,  and  was  to  all  appearance 
a  well  defined  property.  As  long  as  the  land  remained  moorland  or 
forest,  there  was  no  inconvenience  in  designating  the  whole  of  it  Bar ;  but 
as  agriculture  advanced  and  the  number  of  inhabitants  increased,  Bar 
came  to  be  divided  into  several  parts  or  perhaps  holdings,  which  it  would 
be  inconvenient  not  to  be  able  to  distinguish.  The  necessity  for  such 
distinctions  seems  to  have  arisen  when  Saxon  was  the  prevalent  language  ; 
and  so  we  have  Bar-HILL  and  Bar-HOLM,  Bar-BUSH,  Bar-SYDE,  and 
perhaps  Bar-CPtOFT  (Branscroft).  Each  of  these  words  is  a  hybrid  (Bar- 
hill  is  tautological,  Barholm  contradictory),  and  as  such  incurs  the  sus- 
picion of  etymologists  ;  yet  if  we  take  into  account  the  circumstances 
under  whicli  these  names  probably  originated,  the  derivations  we  offer 
are,  we  maintain,  plausible,  if  not  absolutely  certain. 

Another  method  of  distinguishing  two  places  or  objects  of  the  same 
name,  a  method  not  uncommon  in  Kilbai'chan,  may  have  given  rise  to 
hybrids,  and  may  effectually  conceal  the  true  derivation.  Distinctions 
were  sometimes  made  by  throwing  together  two  proper  names  ;  e.g. — Kert- 
Loucwynhok,  E,anfurly-Knox  and  Ranfurly-Cuninghame,  Bar-pennald, 
Craiginfeoch-Chalmers.  In  these  cases  the  process  is  perfectly  apparent, 
but  there  may  be  instances  in  which  it  has  become  more  or  less  disguised. 
It  is  not  impossible  that  the  first  two  syllables  of  Brannocklie  are  Bar 
Knoc,  i.e.  Knox's  Bar.  By  metathesis  and  elision,  Bar  Knoc  becomes 
Branoc.  The  syllable  lie  may  have  been  added  at  a  later  date  when  it 
became  necessary,  or  at  least  convenient,  to  distinguish  Branoc  pasture 
land  or  ley  from  Branoc  arable  land.  Such  a  method  of  forming  names,  it 
is  evident,  gives  no  security  that  the  syllables  in  the  I'esulting  word  will 
be  all  of  them  Saxon  or  all  of  them  Celtic. 


-MS  KILBARCHAN. 

Ill  the  list  wliicli  follows  we  have  included  all  the  more  impoi-taiit 
Kilbarchan  place-names  that  are  not  quite  modern  ;  for  the  derivations 
and  sig-nitications  given,  we  claim  that  in  most  cases  they  are  at  all  events 
possiljle,  and  perhaps  in  some  cases  very  probable.  The  contractions  made 
use  of  are  as  follows: — B.=  British  ;  W.=  Welsh  ;  G.=  Gaelic  ; 
A.S.  =  Anglo-Snxon;   E.=  English  ;  L.  Latin. ^ 

AuCHiNAMES. — Older  forms,  Hauinnamys  (1409),  Auchynnamys  (1488), 
Auchinamys  (1526),  Auchnames  (1537),  Achnems  (1605),  Authyn- 
hame,  etc.,  etc. 

G.   Achadh  naomh  :  holy  held  ; 
or  G.   Achadh-an-neimhiadh  :  field  of  the  shrine. 

Nole.—John  Barbour,  Senior,  merchant  in  Kilbarchan,  who  bought  the  Castle 
and  the  surrounding  ground  in  1762,  was  Justice  of  Peace  and  Baron's  Bailie 
(ob.  17  May,  1770).     He  married  Janet  Fulton,  Broomknowes,  and  had  issue  : — 

1.  John,  Bailie  likewise,  proprietor  of  Law  and  Lawmarnock,  who  married 

Anne,  daughter  of  William  Pollock,  Minister  of  Killallan,  and  had  issue — 
William,  Janet,  Barbara,  and  Margaret  ;  he  built  Forehouse  in  1773. 

2.  William,  who  married   Margaret  Wilson  of    Bowfield,   and    had    issue — 

John,  William,  Robert,  Humphrey,  and  Janet. 

3.  Humphrey,  who  heired  Auchinames,  and  in  1779  built  Baiikhead   House, 

which  was  taken  down  by  Captain  Stirling  after  1817. 

1.  Margaret,  who  married  William  Jamieson,   merchant.    Paisley,  and   had 

issue. 

2.  Mary,  who  married  John  How,  merchant,  Kilbarchan,  and  had  issue. 

3.  Janet,  who  married  (1)  William  Stewart,  merchant.  Paisley  ;  and  (2)  Mr. 

James  Blair,  Sheriff- Substitute. 

4.  Martha,  who  married  John  Stevenson,  Surgeon,  Paisley,  and  had  issue. 

The  four  silver  communion  cups  still  in  use  in  the  Parish  Church  were  gifts 
from  four  of  the  members  of  this  family,  viz.  : — John  Barbour,  Junr.,  merchant 
in  Kilbarchan  ;  William  Barbour,  merchant  in  Kilbarchan  ;  William  Stuart,  mer- 
chant in  Paisley ;  and  Hugh  Jamison,  merchant  in  Manchester.  There  is 
inscribed  on  each,  after  the  donor's  name,  the  words, — "  Lord,  let  Kilbarchan 
flourish  through  the  preaching  of  the  Word."     The  date  on  the  box  is  1762. 

AUCHINCLOICH. — 

G.  Achadh-na-cloiche  :  field  of  the  stone. 


1  These  languages  are  not  all  independent  of  each  other — e.^. ,  British  is  old  Welsh,  as  Anglo- 
Saxon  is  old  English. 


PLACES  AND  PLACE  NAMES.  -249 

AuCHiNDUNAX. — Older  forms,  Auchindinnane,  Hathendounan,  Hachyn- 
diinan. 

G.  Achadh-nan-dunain  :  field  of  the  hills  ; 
or  G.  Achadh-an-dunan  :  field  of  the  little  hill. 

AUCHINSALE. — 

G.  Achadh-an-t-sabhail :  field  of  the  bai'n  ; 
or  G.  Achadh-an-seilich  :  field  of  the  willow. 

AucHEXs. — Older  forms,  Auchynche  (1484),  Auchinch,  Auchinchoss. 
G.  Achadb-na-h-innse  :  field  of  the  inch  or  pasture  ; 
or  G.  Achadh-an-chois  :  field  of  the  cavern. 

Banks  and  Bankhead. — 
E.  Banc  :  a  hillock. 

Bar  or  Bakr. — 
B.  Bar  :  a  hill. 

Babbush. — 

i.e.,  the  bush  or  thicket  by  or  near  Bar. 

Note. — There  were  two  places  of  this  name— that  so  named  now  and  a  field 
opposite  the  manse  avenue. — Ante,  p.  175  n. 

Barhill. — 

i.e.,  the  hill  land  of  Bar. 

Note. — The  fort  indicated  on  the  O.S.  map  can  now  scarcely  be  traced. 
Maxwell,  writing  in  1792,  describes  it  as  semicircular  in  form,  defended  on  the 
south  by  a  parapet  of  loose  stones,  and  on  the  north  by  the  perpendicular  rocks. 
It  is  ascribed  by  him  to  the  Danes  ;  he,  however,  mentions  the  legend  that  Sir 
William  Wallace  once  defended  himself  here,  and  that  sitting  on  a  pinnacle  of 
rock — hence  called  Wallace's  chair — he  enticed  the  English  soldiers  into  the  bog 
at  the  bottom,  where  they  perished.  Chalmers  [1824]  takes  notice  of  it,  and  says 
that  it  was  a  Celtic  stronghold. 

Barholm. — 

i.e.,  the  low  land  of  Bar. 

Barnaigh. — 

G.  Barr-na-feachd  :  hill  of  the  army. 

Barmufflock. — 

Perhaps  G.  Muc-lochaidh  :  perch  accounts  for  part  of  this  name. 
The  high  ground  near  may  have  contributed  the  syllable  "  Bar  "  at 
the  beginning  of  the  word. 

h2 


250  KILBARCHAN. 

Note. — This  was  an  important  holding  in  Semple's  time  [1782].  It  was  at  one 
time  owned  by  John  Taylor,  who  sold  it  to  Mr.  Emmanuel  Walker  of  Craigbet, 
son-in-law  to  Alexander  Porterfield  of  that  ilk.  His  grandson,  Emmanuel,  sold  it 
in  1767  to  Captain  Lachlan  M'Lean  ;  for  three  years  it  was  owned  by  John 
Kennedy,  who  built  a  house  with  a  slate  roof  and  sold  it  in  1782  to  Andrew 
Troop. 

Barnbeth. — Older  forms,  Barbethe  (1440),  Barnbath  (1704). 
G.  Bar-nam-beith  :  hill  of  the  birch  trees. 

Barnbrock. — 

G.  Bar-nam-broch  :  hill  of  the  badger. 

Barngreen. — 

E.  The  green  or  sward  near  the  barn  :  at  one  time  there  were  several 
public  barns  in  Kilbarchan  where  the  householders,  who  had  each  his 
patch  of  ground,  stored  and  threshed  their  oats. 
Or  E.  The  baron's  green ;  the  Cross  was  the  official  centre  of  the  town, 
where  markets  and  the  baron's  bailie's  court  were  held. 

Barroch. — 

G.  Barroch  :  hillocky  place. 

Barsyde. — 

E.  Syde  or  district  near  the  Bar. 

Berryfaulds. — 

E.  Folds  or  enclosures  where  berry  bushes  grew. 

Between-the-Hills. — Other  form,  'Tween-ye-hills. 

This  is  a  translation  of  "  inter  duos  coUes"  of  a  charter  of  date  1177 

\_Reg.  de  Pass.,  p.  49]. 
Blackstoun. — Other  form,  Blaxtou. 

E.  The  dwelling  or  homestead  of  one  Black. 

BOGHOUSE. — 

E.  The  house  on  or  near  the  bog. 
BooTSTOUN. — Other  forms,  Butston,  Boatston,  Biitsmailling. 

E.  The  dwelling  or  homestead  of  one  Bute  [Ante,  pp.  35,  36]. 
Borland. — Other  forms,  Boarland,  Boreland. 

E.  Bord  land  ;  i.e.,  land  the  produce  of  which  provided  maintenance 
for  the  chief's  table. 
Or  E,  Bere  land  ;  i.e.,  land  suitable  for  growing  here  or  barley. 
Or  G.  Mhor  lann  :  large  enclosure. 


PLACES  AND   PLACE  NAMES.  251 

BoYDSYARD. — Other  form,  The  Boggard, 
E.  Boyd's  yard,  garden  or  enclosure. 

Braes. — 

G.  Braigh  :  upper  part, 

Beannocklie. 

E.  The  pasture  land  (lie)  of  Knox's  Bar  [;vide,  -p.  247]. 

Branscroft. — Otlier  forms,  Barnscroft,  Brandiscroft,  Baronscroft,  Brans- 
craft. 

E.  The  croft  or  cropped  land  retained  by  the  Baron  ; 
or  E.  The  cropped  land  near  Bar. 

Note. — Brandy  Street,  the  old  name  for  Steeple  Street,  is  evidently  a  corrup- 
tion for  Brandiscroft  Street.  Eobert  Allison,  whose  ancestors  were  in  possession 
of  this  holding  for  several  generations,  emigrated  with  his  family  to  North  Carolina 
in  1766. 

Bridgeflatt. — 

E.  Level  ground  near  the  bridge. 

Bridge  of  Weir. — Older  form,  Port  of  Weir. 
E.  Port :  way,  crossing  place. 

Note. — The  weir  or  yare  was  constructed  in  the  first  instance  for  fishing  pur- 
poses. M.  Gemmill,  writing  about  fifty  years  ago,  says—"  Marks  of  this  salmon 
weir  are  to  be  seen  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  near  the  old  manse  on  one  side  and 
the  old  corn  mill  on  the  other."     There  was  a  bridge  here  before  1770. 

Bridgesyde. — 

E.  The  border  or  district  near  the  bridge. 

Brookfield. — 

Modern  and  fanciful  name. 

Burnfoot. — 

-foot  may  be,  as  in  Arran,  for  G.  bun  :  mouth  of  a  river  ; 
or  E.  thwate  or  thweit :  land  cleared  of  wood  [Professor  Veitch]. 

BUTTHALL   and    BUTTMEADOW. — 

The  latter  now  called  "Gateside"  was  probably  the  site  of  the  butts 
where  archery  was  practised. 

-hall  :  a  house  of  some  pretensions.     The  word  seems  to  have  been 
frequently  applied  in  Kilbarchan  banteringly. 


252  KILBAECHAX. 

BuRNTSHiELS. — Other  forms,  Brouueschelis  (1526),  Brintscheillis  (1572), 
Brjntschele,  Brenchal. 

Possibly  E.  Burnt  shielings  or  temjiorary  huts.     The  ruins  may  have 
remained  unrepaired  long  enough  to  allow  the  name  to  originate. 
Or  E.  Brown's  shielings. 

Note. — According  to  Crawfurd  there  was  at  one  time  a  family  of  the  name  of 
Bruntchells  of  that  ilk  who  sold  their  possession  to  Lord  Sempill  in  15-17,  and 
the  Sempills  of  Burntshiels  were  therefore  cadets  of  the  family  of  Sempill.  In 
1782  Nether  Burntshiels  belonged  to  John  Speir,  whose  brother  Archibald  at  one 
time  owned  Upper  Burntshiels.  Robert,  son  of  the  latter,  sold  his  possession  in 
1770  to  James  Couper,  at  Firmakine,  who  in  turn  sold  it  to  James  Graham, 
surgeon  in  Paisley. 

Callochaxt. — Other  forms,  Calzachant  (1401),  Calyuchant  (1565), 
Calloch-haugh  (1753),  Coollochhant  (1782),  Killochard,  Coulterhart, 
Colquhat. 

G.  Cul  tir  ard  :  back  land  that  is  hio-h. 


Calside. — 

E.  Cold  side  or  place,  in  reference  to  the  soil  which  may  have  been 
cold  or  sour. 

Cart. — Older  forms,  Kert,  Kart. 

W.  Carthu  :  to  cleanse  and  therefore  the  same  as  Clyde  (Clotha).^ 

Cartside. — 

E.  District  or  land  near  the  Cart. 

Note. — For  twenty -four  years  [1750-74]  Cartside  was  in  the  possession  of  John 
Semple  and  James  his  son,  who  were  descended  from  the  Semples  of  Balgreen. 
The  latter  in  1774  sold  Cartside  to  William  Barr  of  Braes  and  Goldenknows, 
and  with  his  wife  and  seven  children  emigrated  to  America.  William  Semple, 
born  in  1747,  the  writer  of  the  History  of  BenfreusJiire,  was  a  grandson  of  John 
Semple.  His  father,  William,  farmed  the  lands  of  Easter  Kaimhill  and  Boaks- 
hill  for  twenty-seven  years  [1740-67],  and  his  twin-brother  John  went  to  America 
in  1765.     The  proprietor  of  Cartside  in  1837  was  John  Barr. 

Clayfauld. — 

E.  Fold  or  enclosure  the  walls  of  which  were  made  of  clay. 

Clayslapt. — 

Cleavens. — Other  forms,  Clavens,  Clovens. 


\V.  CarcU  :  narrow  or  strait  (M.  Gemmill). 


PLACES  AND  PLACE  XAMES.  253 

Clippens. — Other  form,  Clippings. 

Perhaps  E,  Chppinghouse  on  the  analogy  of  Claver's  for  Claverhouse 
and  Slates  for  Slatehouse. 

l^ote. — The  ancestors  of  the  proprietor  in  1782,  John  Cochran,  according  to 
Sample,  "  possessed  these  lands  for  more  than  three  hundred  years."  His  wife  was 
Mary  Wilson  of  Bowfield,  and  they  had  issue — Hugh,  Peter  (a  surgeon),  and  Joan. 

Clochoderick. — Other    form.s,   Clochrodric    (1204),    Clochotrich    (1270), 
Clouchrocherg  (1272),  Cloriddrick. 

Sir  H.  Maxwell  says  that  it  is  the  stone  (G.  Clach)  of  Ryderch  (Hael), 
ruler  of  Strathclyde  in  the  sixth  century.^ 

COALBOG  and  COALPARK. — 

E.  Bog  and  park,  near  which  were  coal  mines. 

CORBERT. — 

W.   Corberth  (cor  perth) :  dwarf  bush. 

Corse  AR. — 

W.  Cors  or  E.  carse  and  Bar  :  meadow  by  the  Bar  or  hill ; 
or     Cors  for  Cross  (see  Crossflat). 

COWPARK. — 

E.  Perhaps  so  called  because  used  as  a  common  for  the  villagers' 
cows. 

Craigends. — Other  forms,  Craganys,  Craiganis. 
G.   Creag-na-h-innse  :  rock  of  the  meadow. 

Craigneoch. — 

Perhaps  G.  Creag-na-feachd  :  rock  of  the  army. 

Craigrooden. — 

Perhaps  G.   Creag  rtidan  :  knobby  hill. 

Craigton. — Other  form,  Craigston. 
E.  Craig's  homestead. 

Note. — Purchased  from  James  M'Kemmie  in  1775  by  Alexander,  son  of 
Alexander  Speir  and  Margaret  Barbour,  his  wife. 

Ckaigwoodie. — 


*  So  also  Chalmers,  who,  however,  suggests  B.  Cloch-y-drywd,  G.  Cloch-a-draoi'ach  ;  stone  of 
the  Druids. 


254  KILBARCHAN. 

Croked-aiken. — 

G.  Crochaid  aite  :  hanging  place. 


Possibly  for  cross  roads  ;  or  Market  Cross  marking  the  official  centre 
of  the  Barony. 

Crossflat. — Other  form,  Corslet. 

Possibly  level  ground  near  the  Cross. 

Note. — Crosses  were  often  set  up  by  the  ancient  men  of  religion  not  only  for 
devotional  purposes,  but  also  to  mark  the  boundaries  of  church  and  abbey  lands. 

Daluith. — Other  form,  Darluith. 

Perhaps  G.  Dail  dliubh  :  black  meadow. 

Note. — Semple  applies  this  name  to  the  rivulet  which  passes  near. 

Damton. — Other  forms,  Danton,  Dambtoun,  Damptoun. 
E.  The  homestead  near  the  dam. 

Note. — That  a  dam  was  in  the  neighbourhood  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  curling 
stones  of  an  ancient  type  were  dug  up  in  the  field  which  borders  on  Burntshiels. 
The  Hows  at  one  time  owned  Damton,  Law,  Upper  or  Hair's  Pinnel,  Wester 
Wheatlands,  Over  Johnstone,  and  Syde  in  Kilmalcolm. 

Deafhillock. — 

donaldfield. — 

Perhaps  for  (Dun)  donakl  field.     The  Earl  of  Dundonald  at  one  time 

owned  this  and  the  adjoining  estates, 
DrYCxATE. — 

E.  Dry  gate  or  way.     The  way  by  the  Cart  would  be  the  wet  way 

since  it  is  impassable  in  wet  weather. 

DUBSYDE. — 

E.  Land  near  the  pool  or  marsh. 
Easwald. — Other  form,  Oswald  (1724). 

Perhaps  A.S.  meaning  East  wood. 
Erskine  Falls. — 

E.  Enclosures  or  folds  belonging  to  John  and  James  Erskine  \cinte, 

p.  .36]. 

EwiNci  Street. — 

Perhaps  so  called  after  Ewing,  a  residenter  in  or  builder  of  the  first 
house  here  {ante,  pp.  98,  170). 


PLACES   AND  PLACE  NAMES.  255 

Faulds. — Probably  of  Auchiuaiues. 
E.  Enclosures  for  cattle. 

FoREHorsE  and  Foresyde. — 

E.  Front  house  and  front  land. 

Note. — Most  of  old  Kilbarchan  lay  in  the  glen  or  hollow  near  the  church.  Fore 
house,  as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  houses,  would  have  been  in  the  open  or 
front  part.     (For  John  Barbour,  jun.,  vide  Auchinames.) 

FuLDUB. — Other  forms,  Fauldubs,  Fouldub. 

Perhaps  E.  The  fold  or  enclosure  near  the  dub  or  marsh. 

Fulton. — Other  forms,  Fowlton,  Foultoun. 

E.  Fold  town  ;  i.e.,  the  homestead  near  the  fold  or  enclosure. 

Gateside. — 

A    modern    name  ;    the   gate   referred  to  is  probably   that  of  the 
adjacent  churchyard. 

Gladstone. — 

E.  Gled's  homestead  or  dwelling  ;  a  gled  is  a  kite. 

Note. — At  one  time  Gled  was  not  an  uncommon  surname  ;  the  second  Kilbar- 
chan curate  had  this  as  an  alias  \cinte,  pp.  101-4]. 

Glextyax. — Other  form,  Glentayne. 

G.  Gleann-t-sithein  :  glen  of  the  fairy  mound  ; 
or  G.  Gleann-nan-tighean  :  glen  of  the  houses  ; 
or  G.  Gleann-dithein  :  glen  of  gules  or  marigold. 

Note. — The  ancient  village  lay  wholly  in  this  glen.  The  house  was  built  by 
Alexander  Speir  in  1781. 

GoLKHALL. — cf.  Boakshill  (Semple). 

Perhaps  E.  Gowkhill  :  the  hill  of  the  cuckoo.    [For -hall,  i'iV?e  p.  251.] 

GOWDENKNO  WES.  — 

Perhaps  Goldie's  knowes,  i.e.,  the  braes  pastured  by  a  grazier  of  the 
name  of  Goldie. 
Or,  a  fanciful  name  from  the  presence  of  broom-  or  whin-bushes. 

Green. — 

L.  Granagium  [granum  agere]  :  the  grange,  or  place  to  which  the 
grain-tithes  and  -rents  were  borne. 


256  KILBARCHAN, 

Oreenside. — 

E.  The  border  or  district  near  the  grange. 

Note. — The  Paisley  monks  may  have  had  a  grange  in  the  neighbourhood  for  the 
convenience  of  their  Moniabrock  tenants. 

Greystonefauld.  — 

E.  The  fauld  near  Gray's  homestead  ; 
or  E.  The  fold  the  walls  of  which  were  of  grey  stone — and  so  distin- 
guished from  Clay  fauld. 

Gbyffe.^ — Other  forms  Grif,  Grief,  Grytf. 

G.  Garbh  :    rough   stream   and   therefore    the   same  as  Garry  and 
Yarrow ; 
or  W.  Grif :  frog  spawn. 

Hairlaw. — 

E.  Hair's  law  or  hill  \_ante  p.  125,  n.]. 

Hairspinnel. — Other  form,  Harispinnel. 

i.e.,  the  part  of  the  Pinnel  owned  by  Hair  [vide  Penwold]. 

Hairswaas. — 

Hair's  as  before,  and  loaas  may  be — 

1.  a  corruption  of  well,  a  spring  ; 

2.  a  contraction  for  wassellum,  low  L.   for  valliculum  :  a  den  ; 

cf.  Waashill. 
or  3.  in  reference  to  the  wall  made  by  the  outcrop  of  basalt  rock. 

Hardgate. — 

E.  Hard  road. 

Hardhouse. — 

E.  The  house  near  the  above  road. 

Horsewood. — 

HuTHEAD. — Other  form,  Halthead. 

Johnstone. — 

E.  John's  dwelling  or  homestead. 

iV^o<«.— Before  1733  the  name  was  applied  to  land  lying  wholly  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Cart.     At  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  owned  by  an  heiress  of 

'  W.  Grif  :  wide  or  broad  [M.  Gemmill]. 


HriX.S   OF   RAXFl'RLY  CASTLE 


PLACES   AND   PLACE   NAMES.  257 

the  name  of  Nisbet,  whom  Thomas,  younger  son  of  John  Wallace  of  Elderslie, 
married.  There  were  Wallaces  in  Johnstone  for  more  than  two  hundred  years — 
hence  arose  the  name  of  "  Wallace's  Chair,"  applied  to  a  curious  disposition  of 
rocks  in  the  neighbourhood.  Robert  Wallace  of  Johnstone  fell  at  Flodden  fighting 
"under  the  standard  of  our  late  most  illustrious  prince  James  IV.,  King  of  the 
Scots."  The  name  of  William  Wallace  of  Johnstoun  frequently  occurs  in  the 
Register  of  the  Privy  Council  (1589-92)  as  cautioner  for  the  good  conduct  of  his 
friends,  where  he  is  described  as  "a  landit  man."  In  the  inventory  of  his  personal 
effects,  at  his  death  in  1612,  mention  is  made  of  "  seven  cut  ash  trees  lying  beside 
the  Place  of  Johnstoun — price  of  them  all  seven  pounds."  James  Wallace 
[1612-17]  married  Margaret  Lindsay,  and  left  issue  William,  Robert,  John, 
Elizabeth,  Jean.  William  Wallace  [1617-46]  married  Agnes  Porterfield,  who 
brought  him  £3251  Scots  as  her  dowry.  They  had  a  daughter,  Jean,  who  was 
left  100  merks  under  the  will  of  her  aunt,  Jean  Porterfield,  widow  of  Robert 
Hamilton  of  Torrence. 

Kaimhill. — Other  forms,  Caymhill,  ye  Caymhill. 

W.  Cwm  ;  G.  Cam  :  crooked,  was  a  name  applied  to  land  which  lay 
in  the  curve  of  a  stream. 

Kenmure. — 

G.   Ceann  mor  :  great  head,  i.e.,  the  larger  of  the  two  hills  mentioned 
under  Auchendunan. 

KiBBLESTON. — Other  forms,  Kubblestou,  Kiblestone. 
E.  Kibble's  dwelling  or  homestead. 

Langside. — 

Probably,  long  strip  or  slope. 

LiNWOOD. — Other  forms,  Lynwod,  Lynwode,  ye  Lenwode. 

Possibly  loiin,  or  sheltered,  wood  ;  or  Unci,  or  lime-tree,  wood. 

Lin  wooDHOLM.  — 

Meadow  near  Lin  wood. 

LOCHEND. — 

Possibly  Lochland,  i.e.,  land  near  the  loch. 

LocHER. — Other  form,  Lochoc, 

G.  Luachair  :  rushes,  therefore  rushy  stream. 
W.  Llwchur  :  stream  which  forms  pools. 

LOCHBEX. — 

E.  Enclosure  near  the  loch. 

I  2 


258  KILBAECHAN. 

Law. — 

A.S.   Hlaew  :   a   cairn  ;    such  an  eminence   was   vised  as  a  meeting- 
place  or  court,  and  perhaps  also  in  connection  with  funeral  rites  and 
as  a  place  of  sepulture. 
Lawmarnock. — Other  form,  Lynnernocht. 
Perhaps  the  law  of  St.  Ernoc. 

Lint  WHITE. — 

-lohi'e  is  said  to  he  for  -quit  or  quliite,  land  uncultivated  in  the  midst 

of  tilled  land  ;  or  a  clearing  in  a  wood.     cf.  A.S.  thwate. 
Mains. — 

For  demesne,  Lat.  maneo,  land  held  in  the  proprietor's  own  hands. 
Manswraes. — Other    forms,    Manniswra    (1589),    Mausealragh    (1750), 

Manswary. 

Perhaps  G.   Manas-an-rath  :   farm  of  the  fort. 
Marshall  Moor. — Older  form,  Merschell  Muir  of  Clochodereyk.^ 

Probahly  called  after  the  Marshalls  of  Clochoderick  [1549--1680']. 

Meadside. — 

Modern  name,  possibly  applied  by  Rev.  John  M'Laren. 

Merchiston.  — 

Name  probably  imported  by  the  Napiers  from  Midlothian. 
Merchanistoun  (1494)  looks  like  merchant's  town,   but  is  more   pro- 
bably Murchie's  or  Murdoch's  town. 

Merryriggs. — 

Probably  Merry's  ridges. 
MiDDLETON. — 

The  homestead  in  the  middle  or  between  two  others. 
Mill.— 

Glentyan-,  Locher-,  Johnstone-  (afterwards  Milliken-),  St.   Bride's- 

Walk-,  -o'  Cart,  and  Penneld-. 

Miller's  Park. — 

Either  the  miller's  enclosure  or  Miller's  enclosure. 

Milliken. — In  Galloway,  Milligan. 
Erse,  Maologan  :  shaveling. 

1  Crawford's  Protocol  Book.  ■  IbiJ.  ^  Preshy.  Becords. 


PLACES   AND   PLACE   NAMES.  259 

MONKLAND. — 

Contraction  for  Mango's  land  or  acre.      This  farm  did  not  belong  to 
the  Abbey  monks. 

MOOREFOOT. — 

Probably  in  contrast  to  Murehead.      For  -foot  vide  Burnfoot. 

Moss-field,  -land,  -side. — 
Meanings  apparent. 

Muirhead. — 

Vide  Moorefoot. 

Nebanoy. — Other  forms,  Nebany,  Newbanay,  Abbanoy. 

New  Street. — Other  form,  New  Raw. 

About  1747  six  or  eight  feus,  on  the  right  going  from  the  Cross,  were 
taken  up  and  houses  built. 

Overton. — 

A.  S.  Ufera  ton  :  upper  dwelling. 

Penwold. — Other  forms,  Penuld  and  Pennald  (ab.  1177),  Pannel,  Pinnel, 
Penneld. 
W.   Pen  allt  :  cliff  or  wood  end.^ 

Note. — Sir  John  Craufurd  mentions  '■  Elezebeth  Wallace,  auld  ladye  Pennall, 
who  made  John  Mershall  of  Clochoderich,  Walter  Knok,  and  Alex'  Hayr,  her  son, 
her  heirs  "  [22nd  Dec,  1549].  The  property  was  divided  into  Upper  or  Hair's 
Penneld  and  Nether  or  Rodger's  Penneld.  William  Rodger  built  a  bouse  and  put 
the  date  on  it,  16G3  ;  and  afterwards  sold  it  to  one  Marshall,  proprietor  of  the 
other  Penneld.  Marshall's  daughter  married  Mr.  Thomas  Kennedy,  and  bad 
issue — 

1.  Anne,  who  married  Robert  Dalrymple,  and  got  the  Pennelds  as  her  dowry. 

They,  along  with  Hairswalls  and   Craigroading,  were  sold  to   James 
Milliken  in  1755. 

2.  Grissel,  who  married  James  How  of  Forehouse,  a  son  of  How  of  Damton, 

and  got  Wester  Wheatlands  as  her  dowry.     Their  son,  John  How,  mer- 
chant in  Kilbarcban,   married   Mary  Barbour,   and  had   issue — James, 
John,  William,  Thomas,  and  Mary. 
Both  Semple  and  Maxwell  mention  a  ruined  castle  at  Penneld,  which  tradition 
said  was  built  by  Haic,  but  he  being  slain  in  the  interval,  never  completed  it. 
The  mill  of  Penneld  was  demolished  in  1770,  yet  the  mill  stones  were  to  be  seen, 
/  in  loco,  until  about  forty  years  age. 


W.  Penguaul  :  wall's  end.      Vide  Sir  H.  Maxwell's  Scottish  Place  Names,  pp.  65,  66. 


260  KILBARCHAN. 

Parkhead. — 

Probably  top  of  tbe  "  Pave  "  or  enclosed  ground. 

Passinglinn. — Other  forms,  Pishinglinn,  Pishenlinn. 
Possibly  G.  or  W.   Pit  lion  :  flax  town. 

Nate. ~^The  intermediate  forms  with  their  indelicate  allusions  arose  from  a  false 
analogy.     The  present  form  was  adopted  in  compliance  with  a  daintier  taste. 

Plainlees. — 

Possibly  plain  or  flat  pasture  groiuid. 

Pow  Burn. — 

i.e.,  sluggish  burn,  in  contrast  to  the  neighbouring  Rotten-  or  brawl- 
ing burn. 

Prieston. — 

E.  Priest's  dwelling.  The  little  chapel  called  "the  Chapel  of  Ran- 
furlie,"  or  "  Our  Lady  Chapel  in  Ranfurlye,"  was  quite  near.  The 
chaplain  in  1542-7  was  Sir  Robert  MacAulay,  who  required  Uchtred 
Knok  to  fulfil  his  promise  [10  Aug.,  1542],  and  whose  servant, 
William,  made  him  his  heir  [1547y 

Ranfurly. — Other  forms,  Rainfarnly  (c.  1413),  Ranfarnle  (1413),  Ran- 
forle  (1440),  Ranfurle  (1440),  Ranferlie  (1593),  Ramphorlie  (1760). 

Note. — Ranfurly  was  the  name  applied  to  a  district  between  one  thousand  and 
one  thousand  five  hundred  acres  in  extent,  bounded  on  the  North  by  the  GryfTe, 
on  the  east  by  Craigends,  on  the  south  and  south-east  by  the  Locher,  and  on  the 
west  and  north-west  by  the  Carruth  Burn  and  the  Gotter  Water.  The  earliest 
mention  of  the  name  is  in  a  charter  by  Robert  III.  [1390-1406],  in  which  he 
grants  to  William  Guninghame  of  Kilmaurs  the  lands  inter  alias  of  Rainfarnly  in 
the  Barony  of  Renfrew.  In  1440  there  is  mention  of  John  of  Knokkis  of  Ran- 
ferle.  So  that  during  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  must  have  been 
Cuninghame's  Ranfurly  and  Knox's  Ranfurly. 

i;.\NFUKLY  CUNINGHAMK  is  first  mentioned  in  1532.  It  included  Hallhill, 
Lochermill,  Lintwhite,  Coalbog,  High  and  Low  Auchinsale,  East  and  West 
Auchincloich,  Manswraes,  Torr,  Threeplie,  and  Craigbet.  Some  of  these  lan(is 
were  sold  by  the  Earl  of  Glencairn  to  Guninghame  of  Graigends  about  1513. 
The  rest  Graigends  acquired  in  1634.  They  continued  in  the  possession  of  this 
family  until  1745,  when  part  of  them  was  bought  by  James  Milliken,  and  part 
by  the  Earl  of  Glencairn.  In  1792  Day  Hort  Macdowall  of  Walkinshaw  acquired 
part  of  them  and  feued  them  out  to  various  proprietors. 

Ranfurly-Knox  is  first  mentioned  in  1593.  It  included  Brannocklie, 
Prieston,  Shillingworth,  Haltoun,  Horsewood,  Horsewoodhead,  BarmufHock, 
North  and   South   Barnbetb,  Barnbrock,  Glevans,  and   Calside.     After  being  in 

1  Craufurd's  Protocol  Book. 


GROUND   PLAN  OF  RANFURLY  CASTLE 


PLACES  AND  PLACE  NAMES.  26  L 

of  the  Knoxes  for  at  least  two  hundred  years,  these  lands  were  sold  to 
the  Earl  of  Dundonald,  to  whose  family  they  belonged  from  16G5  until  1760, 
when  James  Hamilton  of  Aikenhead  acquired  it ;  whose  successors  sold  it  to 
James  Watt  in  1S38.  Portions  were  feued  out  by  the  Earl  of  Dundonald  and 
the  Hamilton?. 

Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Horatius  Bonar,  we  are  enabled  to  reproduce  the 
accompanying  ground  plan  of  Ranfuiily  C.4STLE,  the  only  ruin  of  any  interest  in 
the  parish,  and  also  the  following  notes,  which  form  the  substance  of  a  report 
prepared  for  Mr.  Bonar  in  the  year  1882  by  the  late  Mr.  W.  Galloway,  Architect. 

The  walls  were  of  whinstone  rubble,  with  blocks  of  hewn  sandstone  at  the  doors, 
windows,  staircases,  etc.  ;  and  it  is  largely  through  the  latter  having  been  torn 
from  their  places  by  those  who  needed  them  for  baser  purposes  that  the  building 
has  been  reduced  to  its  present  state  of  ruin. 

Reference  to  the  plan  will  show  that  the  buildings  consisted  of  (1)  a  keep  or 
stronghold  on  the  north,  (2)  a  group  of  houses  also  on  the  north  and  extending 
eastwards  from  the  keep,  and  (.3)  another  group  of  houses  on  the  south — forming 
two  sides  of  a  court-yard,  enclosed  on  the  west  by  a  wall  and  left  open  to  the  east. 

1.  The  keep  was  probably  two  or  three  storeys  in  height,  and  though  its  base- 
ment chamber  was  only  twelve  by  fourteen  feet,  the  upper  chambers  were  pro- 
bably somewhat  larger  owing  to  the  decreasing  thickness  of  the  walls  as  they  rose. 
The  plan  shows  the  doorway  opening  on  the  courtyard,  the  arrow  slit  two  feet  high 
and  four  inches  wide  commanding  the  approach  on  the  east,  and  a  large  opening 
broken  through  at  a  subsequent  period  communicating  with  the  east  buildings  ; 
but  the  plan  does  not  show  the  narrow  turnpike  stair  at  the  south-east  angle 
formed  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  nor  of  course  the  two  large  openings  in  the 
east  wall  at  the  level  of  the  second  floor.  The  north  wall  has  suflfered  much  more 
than  the  others  not  only  by  the  removal  of  the  sandstone  groins,  but  because  its 
foundations  rested  on  a  shelving  rock. 

2.  The  plan  shows  that  the  adjoining  buildings  running  eastwards  from  the 
keep  were  divided  into  two  compartments  with  a  doorway  between  them,  and  near 
it  a  turnpike  stair.  They  probably  rose  two  or  three  storeys  in  height,  and  each 
would  communicate  by  its  own  door  with  the  corresponding  floor  of  the  keep. 

3.  The  south  buildings  were  divided  into  three  compartments,  all  of  which  were 
barrel-vaulted,  and  were  probably  used  as  byres  and  stables,  etc.  There  was 
probably  a  second  storey  over  these  vaults,  though  no  trace  remains  of  the  means 
by  which  it  was  reached. 

The  wall  enclosing  the  courtyard  on  the  west  was  six  feet  in  thickness,  but  its 
height  has  not  been  determined. 

The  Castle  has  been  untenanted  since  it  passed  from  the  possession  of  the 
Knoxes  in  1665. 

Immediately  to  the  south  of  the  Castle  there  is  a  rectangular  mound  of  earth, 
evidently  artificial,  from  twelve  to  twenty  feet  high.  At  the  summit  each  side 
measures  about  forty-three  feet.  The  opinion  of  Dr.  Robert  Munro  is  that  it  was 
an  ancient  stronghold.  Mr.  Bonar  had  a  trench  made  through  it  down  to  the 
solid  rock,  but  no  relics  were  found. 

In  the  neighbouring  fields  were  found  two  interesting  relics,  now  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Horatius  Bonar  : — 


262  KILBAECHAN. 

1.  A  silver  talismanic  brooch  of  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century,  which 
bears  the  following  inscription  : — 

+   IHESUS   •    •    NAZAR  :  ENUS  REX 

2.  A  gold  talismanic  finger  ring  of  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  On 
an  oval  are  the  letters  IHS,  with  the  sign  of  contraction  over  them,  showing  that 
they  stand  for  "  Jesus  ;  "  in  the  centre  are  two  interlinked  hearts,  and  below  them 
the  letters  A  E. 

Bed  AN. — 

A  fanciful  name,  adopted  like  Balaclava  and  Inkermaun  after  the 
Crimean  war,  1856. 

Rendyke. — 

-dyke  or  -dike  often  indicates  the  site  of  an  old  camp. 

RoBSTON  or  Rabston. — 

E.  Rob's  or  R.obert's  homestead. 

ROUGHILL. — 

Perhaps  rough  hill  pasture. 

RO  WA  NTREEFL  AT. 

Name  apjaarently  modern. 

Ryewraes. — Other  forms,  Wraywraes,  Ryvvralthis,  Riverees. 

Sandholes. — 

E.   Sand  pits. 

Nvte. — Mary  Henderson,  who  heired  this  property,  married  (1)  John  Wilson, 
and  had  issue, — 1.  Mary,  who  married  Mr.  James  Black  in  Peuneld,  and  2.  Eliza- 
beth, who  married  Alexander  Fairlie  and  went  to  America;  and  (2)  James 
Aiken,  and  had  issue  four  sons — John,  James,  Robert,  and  Matthew. 

Schoolfauld. — 

Meaning  apparently  obvious,  but  there  is  no  record  of  a  school  here. 

Selvieland. — 

i.e.,  Sely  or  poor  land. 

Shillingworth — 

1.  Possible  reference  to  an  old  tax  or  rent  ;    cf.  Penny-  and  Merk- 

land. 

2.  A.S.  Worth  :  place,  and  the  name  may  indicate  the  place  where 

oats  were  shelled  or  winnowed. 

3.  Shilling  or  Skiiling  was  at  one  time  a  common  personal  name. 


PLACES   AND   PLACE   NAMES.  263 

Shuttle  Street. — 

The  form  of  the  street  may   have  suggested  a  resemblance  to  the 
older  type  of  shuttle. 

Steeple  Street. — 

Once  Brandy  or  Branscroft  Street.     The  Steeple  was  erected  in  1751. 

Syan's  Acre. — 

1.  Syan  may  have  been  the  name  of  an  old  residenter. 

2.  Syan  may  be  like  Sciennes  (Ediiibui'gh),  a  corruption  of  Sienna. 

The  Nunnery  in  Edinburgh  owned  the  patronage  of  St.  John 
the  Baptist's  Chapel,  founded  by  Sir  John  Craufnrd,  a  pre- 
bend of  St.  Giles,  in  1512.  The  double  coincidence  tempts 
one  to  argue  that  St.  Katharine's  Chapel  in  Kilbarchan  had 
as  its  patroness  the  Saint  of  Sienna. 

Tandilhill  or  Taxnelhill. — 

Possibly  tandle,  beacon  or  bonfire  hill. 
G.   Tional  :  gathering  or  assembly. 

Terbet's  or  Castle  Eaxkine. — 

Terbet  was  once  a  common  patronymic  in   Kilbarchan  ;    two  of  the 

name  occupied  the  Overtons  in  1782. 

The  second  name  was  applied  in  banter  to  a  house  began  but   not 

finished. 

Thirdpart   Hall. — 

Land  was  sometimes  let  for  one  third  of  the  produce. 

Ndtp. — The  house  was  of  some  pretensions,  and   was   occupied  by   William 
Sympill  in  1550.^     It  belonged  afterwards  to  the  Sempills  of  Beltrees. 

Threeplie. — 

Possibly  A.S.,  threapian  :  to  threap  or  contest  ;  therefore  land  regard- 
ing which  there  had  been  a  dispute. 

TODHOLES. — ■ 

i.e..    Fox    holes ;    so    called,    says    the    legend,    because    the    feuar 
neglected  to  bargain  with  his  superior  regarding  access. 

Torr.— 

G.  Torr  :  hill  or  thicket. 


Abbey  Rent  Roll. 


264  KILBARCHAN. 

Warden  D. — 

i.e.,  Wardland/  or  enclosed  land,  sc.  of  Auchinames. 

Wardhouse. — 

House  near  enclosed  land. 

Note. — It  belonged  before  1676  to  Mr.  James  Motitgomerie,  and  was  bought  by 
John  Speir,  to  whom  succeeded  his  sons,  John  (ob.  1694)  and  Mr.  Archibald, 
student  of  theology  and  Notary  Public  (ob.  17.34).  The  latter  was  succeeded  by 
his  son,  Mr.  John,  Notary  Public  (ob.  1772).  The  proprietor  in  1782  was 
Archibald  Speir,  a  youth  of  sixteen  years  of  age,  who  owned  also  Rabstoun  and 
Moss-side. 

Waterstone. — Older  form,  Walterstone. 
F.  Walter's  dwelling  or  steading. 

Note. — Here,  in  1782,  there  were  the  remains  of  a  mansion  house  "  built  after 
the  ancient  model  with  strong  stone  arches."  This  property  was  before  1384  the 
possession  of  a  family  of  the  name  of  Waterstoun,  who  sold  it  to  Sir  William 
Cuiiiiighame  of  Kilmaurs.  In  1-538  it  was  the  property  of  Hugh  Cuningham,  son 
of  the  Master  of  Glencairn.  "  Niiiian  Conyghame  of  Vatterstoun  had  his  lands  reft 
from  him  by  Glencairn,  and  the  spnizie  done  by  Gabriel  Cuninghame  of  Craigends" 
(1544)  amounted  to  "32  ky  and  oxen,  33  bollis  of  meil,  v"  boliis  of  seyd  chorn, 
and  3  hay  stacks."  ^  A  family  of  the  name  of  Orr  possessed  what  was  perhaps 
the  present  Waterstone  for  three  generations  ;  their  representative,  Robert  Orr, 
went  to  the  West  Indies  about  1777. 

Watersydk. — 

i^and  near  the  Water  of  Cart. 

Weitlands.— Other  forms,  Wellands  (1504),  Weytlandis  (1549),  White- 
lands,  Wheatlands. 

1.   A.S.   Weit  or  uit  :  out  (c/!  Uitlaiider) ;  therefore  the  out-field  or 
pasture  land,  in  contrast  to  the  in-field  or  arahle  ; 
or  2.   A.S.  Thwate  :  land  cleared  of  wood. 

Xi'tc. — In  1550  part  of  Weitlands  belonged  to  'William  Semple  of  Cathcart,' 
and  in  1604  there  is  mention  of  a  John  Semple''  there.  In  1628  Ezekiel  Mont- 
gomerie,  who  was  descended  from  the  families  of  Giffen  and  Hessilhead,  married  a 
Semple  of  Millbaiik,  and  probably  acquired  Weitlands  through  his  wife.  His  son, 
Mr.  John,  is  mentioned  in  the  Presbytery  Records  [1646,  1650],  and  his  grand- 
son, Mr.  Ezekiel,  Sheriff'  Depute  of  Renfrewshire,  attained  notoriety  by  his 
twenty-four  acts  of  "  malversation,  oppression,  concussion,  and  extortion  "'  [Feb. 
14th,  1684].  Having  been  liberated  on  bail,  he  fled,  but  was  re-arrested  ;  he  then 
promised  to  turn  informer  against  political  offenders,  and  was  again  liberated. 


Ante,  p.  49.  '  Craufurd'a  Protocol  Book.  '  Ibid.  *  Presby.  Records. 


HERALDIC   SHIELDS  IN  KII.RAKCHAX  OLD   PARISH   CHURCH 

Vide  jiatje.s  27 .',-r> 


TALISMAXIC   HROOCH   AM)   RING 


PLACES  AND  PLACE  NAMES.  265 

This  time,  presumably  without  giving  the  desired  information,  he  fled  to  Ireland, 
where  it  was  said  that  he  turned  preacher.  Fountainhall's  Notices  leave  us  iti 
some  doubt  as  to  whether  Mr.  Ezekiel  was  the  out-and-out  rogue  he  is  repre- 
sented to  have  been,  or  whether  he  was  not  to  some  extent  the  victim  of  the 
schemings  of  his  political  opponents.  The  author  of  The  Chernj  mul  the  Slae  was  a 
relative  of  the  Weitland  family. 

Whinneestone.  — 

E.  Whinner's  steading. 

Wind  YH  ILL. — 

Yaedfoot  and  Yardshead. —    ^ 
Meanings  apparent. 


k2 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Odds  and  Ends. 


Till  from  the  garden  and  the  wild 

A  fresh  association  blow, 

And  year  by  year  the  landscape  grow 
Familiar  to  the  stranger's  child  ; 

As  year  by  year  the  labourer  tills 

His  wonted  glebe,  or  lups  the  glades  ; 
And  year  by  year  our  memory  fades 

From  all  the  circle  of  the  hills. 

—  Tennyson 


The  Clergy  i.f  Kilbarchan — Lay  Office-bearers  in  the  Parish  Church — Note  on  the  Parish  Church — 
Quoad  Sacra  Parishes — Extracts  from  Craufurd's  Protocol  Book — Note  on  Town-foot — 
Chartism— Kilbarchan — Poets   and   Men  of   Note— Present-day   Kilbarchan. 


It  is  perhaps  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  the  writer  of  a  book  such  as 
this  should  succeed  in  weaving  all  the  materials  at  his  disposal  into  the 
texture  of  his  story.  There  remain  upon  our  hands  many  thrums  or 
ravellings — names  and  records,  incidents  and  circumstances  which  have 
not  Ibuiid  a  place  in  the  preceding  chapters.  A  selection  of  them  we 
propose  now  to  })resent,  necessarily  in  a  detached  manner,  to  the  indul- 
gent reader. 

/. — The  Clergy  of  KilharcJian. 

(a)    BEFORE    THE    REFORMATION. 

Saint  Berchan, 

Master  John  of  Kilbarchan,  Dean  of  Clydesdale, 


Roger,  Vicar ;  sometimes  described  as  Deacon, 

Finlay  of  Clochoderick,   ... 
*  Sir  James  Shaw,  Vicar, 

Master  Henry  Mouss,  Vicar, 
'"'?  Sir  John  Mudy,  Vicar, 
■'^  Sir  Simon  Shaw,  Vicar, 

Master  John  Macqueen,  Vicar,  ... 


ab.  650. 
ab.  1225. 
ab.  1230-70. 
ab.  1270-2. 
ab.  1484. 
16th  century, 
ab.  1549. 
after  1549. 
before  1580. 


ODDS  AND  ENDS. 

Sir  John  Craufurd,  Chaplain  of  St.  Katharine's,  ab.  1542. 

Master  David  Curll,         ,,  ,,  „  ab.  15(30. 

?  Sir  John  Brown,  Chaplain  of  the  Lady  Chapel 

in  Kilbarchan,       ...  ...  ...  ...  ab.  1550. 

Sir  Robert    M'Caulay,    Chaplain    of  the    Lady 

Chapel  iu  Ranfurly,  ...  ...  ...  ab.  1542. 


{h)    AFTER    THE    REFORMATION. 

William  Wallace  of  Johnstone,  lay  Vicar,  ...  1561. 

Master  Adam  Watsoun,  Reader,  ...  ...  1567. 

Alexander  Cunyngharae,  Reader,  ...  ...  1572-4. 

Robert  Cuik,  Minister,     ...  ...  ...  ...  1576-8. 

Robert  Craufurd,  Reader,  ...  ...  ...  1577. 

James  Flemyng,  M. A.  (Glas.),  Minister,  ...  1578. 

John  Cunynghame,  son  of  4th  laird  of  Craigends, 

lay  Vicar,  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  1585. 

Gawyn  Hammyltoun,  Reader  [1603-5],  lay  Vicar,  1586-1628. 

James  Levingstoun,  M.A.  (Glas.),  Minister,       ...  1589-91. 

John  Bell,  M.A.  (Glas.),  Minister,  1591-3. 

Robert  Stirling,  M.A.  (Glas.),  Minister, 1593-1603. 

Andro  Hamilton,  M.A.  (Edit!.),  Minister,  ...  1605-46. 

James  Glendinuing,  M.A.  (St.  A.),  locum  tenens,  1646-9. 
James  Stirling,  M.A.  (Glas.),  Minister  [1649-62],  \  ,^,„ 

Indulged  Presbyterian  Minister  [1672-83],  J  "^  " 

James  Walkinshavv,  Collegiate  Indulged  Minister,  1672. 
David  Peirsoun,   M.A.    (St.   A.),   Parson    under 

Episcopacy,  ...  ...  ...  ...  1664-70. 

Archibald  Wilson  or  Gled,  Parson    under  Ejjis- 

copacy,        1683-7. 

James  Stirling,  Minister, 1688-99. 

Robert  Johnstoun,  Minister,        1701-38. 


*  Sir  was  apparently  prefixed  to  the  names  of  ecclesiastics  who  had  not  graduated  as  Masters 
at  a  University  ;  they  were  known  as  Pope's  Knights. 


The  pure  priest  thinkis  he  gettis  no  richt 
Be  he  nocht  stylit  lyke  ane  knicht, 
And  callit  Schir,  afore  his  name, 
As  Schir  Thomas  and  Schir  Williame. 


-Lyndsay. 


KILBARCHAN. 


John  Warner,  Minister,  ... 
Patrick  Maxwell,  Minister, 
Eobert  Douglas,  Ass.  and  Succ.  [1802-6],  Minis 

ter  [1806-46],        

Eobert  Archibald,  Ass.  and  Succ, 

Eobert  Graham,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Glas.),  Minister,  .. 

Eobert  D.  MacKenzie,  B.D.   (St,  A.),  Ass.   and 

Succ.  [1892-5],  Minister  [1895-         ],    ... 


1739-86. 

.   1787-18C 

.   1802-46. 

.   1844-46. 

1847-95. 

1892- 


{c)    SECESSION    (burgher)    CHURCH    AT    BURNTSHIELS. 

John  M'Cara, 

John  Lindsay,  removed  to  Johnstone,    .. 

David  Stewart  Wylie,      ... 

Alexander  Brown, 

William  Scott  Hay,  removed  to  Bridge  of  Weir, 


...   1744-67. 

...   1772-92. 

...   1793-6. 

...   1796-1821 

?ir,   1821-6. 

(d)    RELIEF    CHURCH    AT    KILBARCHAN. 


John  Maclaren, 

Mr.  Kessen, 

Matthew  Alison,   ... 

George  Alison, 

Eobert  Eussell,  M.A.  (Gls 


.),  Colle 


1788-18( 

1809-15. 

1818-41. 

1842- 

1893- 


(e)    PARISH    CHURCH    AT    BRIDGE    OF    WEIR. 


William  Scott  Hay,  from  Burntshiels,    ... 
George    IMure     Smith    (now    Minister    of   West 

Church,  Stirling),  Missionary,      ... 
J.  M.  Eobertson,  Missionary, 
Eobert  Turnbull  (now   Minister  of  Barrowfleld), 

Missionary, 
Thomas  Duncan,  D.D.  (Glas.),  Minister, 
Alexander  M.  Shand,  M.A.  (Aberd.),  Minister,... 


1839-43. 


1875-6. 

1876-8. 

1879-83 

1884-99 

1899- 

*  From  jMiramichi,  New  Brunswick,  inducted  Assistant  and  Successor  in  Kilbarchan,  March 
14,  1844  ;  inducted  Minister  of  New  Monkland,  Jan.  22,  1846. 


1843-5. 

1846-7. 

1847-51. 

1852-7. 

1858-67. 

1867- 

ODDS  AND   ENDS. 
(/)    FREE    CHURCH    AT    BRIDGE    OF    WEIJ 

William  Scott  Hay, 

James  Findlay, 

Andrew  Leiper  Peock, 

George    (Juningharae    Monteath    Douglas,    D.  D. 

(Glas.),    now   Principal   of  U.F.   College, 

Glasgow,  ... 
John  M'Gregor,  ... 
Thomas  Carruthers,  M.A.  (Glas.),-  ...   ■ 

(g)   PARISH   CHURCH    AT   LIXWOOD. 

Jymes  Wallace,  Missionary,  ord.  1860, 1856-67. 

J;imes  Douglas,  Missionary,  afterwards  Minister 

of  Kinning  Park, 18G7-73. 

William  Milne,  Missionary,  afterwards  Minister 

of  St.  Cyrus,  1873-80. 

John  Adamson  Abei-nethy,  Minister,      ...  ...  1880- 

{h)    UNITED    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH    AT    BRIDGE    OF   WEIR. 

Adam  Wilson,  B.D.  (Glas.),         1890- 

(i)    ROMAN    CATHOLIC   CHAPEL   AT    LIN  WOOD. 
Williiun  Shaw,       1900- 

(_/)    ASSISTANTS    AND    MISSIONARIES    AT    KILBARCHAN. 

John  Buchanan,     ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  1738-9. 

William  Boyd,  afterwards  Minister  of  Fenwick,  1776-82. 
William  Brown,          „                 „        Eskdalemuir,  1782-86. 
Archibald  Glen,          „                 „                   Parton,  1798. 
Robert  Stevenson,     ,,                 ,,                    Dairy,  1835. 
James  S.  Johnson,     „                ,,        Cambu-slang,  1842-3. 
James  Wilson,  M.A.,  now  Min.  of  Broughty  Ferry,  1862-4. 
David  Strong,  M.A.,  now  D.D.  and  Min.  of  Hill- 
head,  Glasgow,          ...          ...          ...          ...  1864. 

John  Richard  Scoulai-,  now  Min.  of  Cupar-Fife,  18G5. 

John  Menteith,  afterwards  Min.  of  Glencairn,  ...  1865-7. 

*  Grandfather  of  Mrs.  Graham,  late  Kilbarchan  Maase. 


KILBARCHAN. 


John  Stevenson,  B.D.,  now  Min.  at  Kilcreggan,  1868-70. 

John   Stewart,  M.A.,  now   Min.   of  Bridgegate, 

Glasgow,        1871-2. 

Jaines  A.  G.  Johnson  (ob.  1884),  1872-3. 

Francis  Haldane,  afterwards  Min.    at    Saltcoats 

(ob.  1901), 1873-8. 

James  Cornwall  Brown,  now  Min.  of  Stewarton,  1878-9. 

James  Ray,  M.A.,  now  Min.  of  Cellardyke,       ...  1880-2. 

Robert  Andrew,  M.A.,  now  Min.  of  Walls,  Shet- 
land,    1882. 

Thomas  Reid  Thomson,  now  Min.  of  East  Kirk, 

Greenock,       1883-7. 

John  Cook  Teiuiant,  now  a  Min.  in  Australia,  ...  1887-8. 


//. — Lay  Office-Bearers  in  the  Parish  Church, 
(a)  Elders. 
Alexander  Cuninghame,  5th  Laird  of  Craigends,  in  office,  1604. 
"William  Wallace,  Laird  of  Johnstone, 

John  Semple  of  Weitlands, ...  ...  ...  „  ,, 

William  Cuninghame,  Gth  Laird  of  Craigends,...  ,,  1615. 

John  Mairshall,     ...  ...  ...  ...  „  1628. 

Ezechiel  Montgomerie  of  Wardhouse,  ...  ,,  ,, 

Alexander    Cuninghame,  younger    of  C'raigends 

(afterwards  7th  Laird),  ...  ...  ,,  1646. 

Mr.  James  Montgomerie  of  Weitlands,  ...  ,,  16  47. 

Robert  Allansone  of  Brandiscroft,       ...  .  ,,  1648. 

John  How  of  Dambtoun,      ...  ...  ...  ,,  1649. 

Archibald  Arthur,  ...  ...  ...  „  1651. 

Andrew  Arthur,    ...  ...  ...  ...  ,,  1652. 

John  Patesoune,    ...  ...  ...  ...  ,,  1653. 

David  Andrew,     ...  ...  ...  ...  „  ,, 

William  Merschel I,  ...  ...  ...  „  1654. 

Hew  Semple,         ...  ...  ...  ...  ,,  ,, 

William  Allason,...  ...  ...  ...  „  1660. 

William     Cuninghame,    younger    of     Craigends 

(afterwards  8th  Laird),  ...  ...  „  16S8. 

James  Semple,       ...  ...  ...  ...  ,,  1689. 

Andrew  Arthur,  probably  merchant  at  Brigside,  ,,  „ 


ODDS   AND  ENDS. 


John  Speir,  probably  in  Wardhouse,       ...  ...  in  office,  1692. 

Robert  Blair,       ,,        in  Auchinsale,       ...  ...  ,,  1695. 

Robert  Lang,         ...              ...              ...  ...  ,,  1703. 

William  Rodger,  ...              ...              ...  ...  ,,  1708. 

William  Reid,        ...              ...              ...  ...  „  1712. 

Bailie  John  Barbour,  Senr.,...               ...  ...  ,,  1713. 

Robert  Speir, 

William  Semple,   ...              ...              ...  ...  ,,  1717. 

Robert  Reid,          ...               ...               ...  ...  „  1720. 

Mathew  Henderson,  portioner  in  Waterstone,  ,,            ,, 

John  Niven,           ...               ...               ...  ...  „  1723. 

John  Orr,  portioner  in  Waterstone,    ...  ...  ,,            ,, 

William  Greenlees,                ...              ...  ...  ,,  1725. 

John  Kelso,            ...               ...               ...  ...  ,,  1727. 

William  Cochran,...               ...               ...  ...  ,,            ,, 

James  Jackson,     ...              ...              ...  ...  ,,  1735. 

James  Watterstoun,              ...              ...  ...  ,,  1737. 

James  Young  of  Weitlands,                  ...  ...  ,,  173S. 

William  Reid, 

Bailie  John  Barbour,  Junior,                 ...  ...  ,,  1742. 

!!obert  White,       ...              ...              ...  ...  ,,            ,, 

Alexander  Speir,  town  of  Kilbarchan,  appointed  1745. 

Michael  Garner,  schoolmaster,             ...  ,,              ,, 

William  Erskiue,  ...              ...              ...  ...  in  office,  1748. 

Hugh  Semple,        ...               ...               ...  ...  ,,            ,, 

"  James  Craig  of  Monkland,   ...               ...  ...  acting,        ,, 

*  John  Semple  in  Panel,          ...              ...  ...  ,,              ,, 

*■  Robert  Alison  of  Branscroft,                 ...  ...  ,,  1750. 

John  Speir  in  Locherside,     ...               ...  appointed  1754. 

Archibald  Caldwell  in  Schuter  Yeard,  ,,              ,, 

Patrick  Bar  in  Horsewood,  ...              ...  ,,              ,, 

John  Honeyman,  town  of  Kilbarchan,  ,,              „ 

John  Love,  either  in  Wardend  or  Clochoderick,  in  office,  1756. 

John  Speir  of  Wardhouse,    ...              ...  appointed  1763. 

William  Bryden,  town  of  Kilbarchan,  ...  ,,  ,, 

Robert  Barr,                   „            „            ...  ...  ,, 

Robert  Caldwell,           „            „            ...  ...  „              ,, 


Assisted  at  the  tent  on  the  occasion  of  the  Sacrament. 


KILBARCHAN, 

James  Black,  Pa  nil  ell,  ...  ...  appointed  1763. 

Robert  Rodger,  Fulton, 

Robert  Reid,  Muirfoot  of  Green, 

William  Bryden,  Bariibrock,  ...  ...        ,,  177 

Robert  Aitken,  Locher  Mill, 

Robert  Birkmyre,  town  of  Killmrchan, 

Jobn  Anderson,  ,,  ,, 

Robert  Ferguson,  schoolmaster, 

Mr.  William  Boyd,  Assistant  Minister,  ...   acting,     1777. 

James  Orr  of  Bankhead,      ...  ...  appointed   1807. 

Arthur  Lang,  Laigli  Bruntchell,  ...  ,,  „ 

John  Hill,  Whinnerstouii,    ...  ...  ,,  ,, 

John  Finlay,  Manager,  Cotton  Mill,  Bridge  of  Weir,  ,,  ,, 

John  Rodger,  Fulton,  ...  ...  admitted   1817. 

■  James  Stevenson  of  Auchinames,         ...  ...   acting,     1824. 

■  William  Jackson  in  Passinglimi,  ...  ...         ,,  ,, 

James  M'Lintock,  ...  ...  admitted      ,, 

John  Reid,  Penneld,  ...  ...  ,,  1839. 

James  Laird,  Barholm,  ...  ...  appointed   1841. 

John  Clark,  Manswraes,       ...  ...  ...        „  1847. 

William  Fulton,  Kaimhill,  ... 

William  Woodrow,  Clochoderick, 

John  Watt,  Linwood, 

William  Edmund  Hardie,  Locher, 

John  Glegg,  MiHiken,  ...  ...  ...        „  I8t 

Matthew  Woodrow,  Barnbeth, 

Mathew  Anderson,  Ashburne,  ...  admitted      ,, 

John  Stevenson  of  Wardend,  ...  appointed  1873. 

John  Boyd,  schoolmaster,     ... 

Robert  Carruth  of  Callochant, 

John  Eadie,  West  Fulton,   ...  ...  ...        „  1883. 

William  Holmes  of  Gladstone, 
Robert  Fairley,  Mountview, 
Thomas  M'Crorie,  schoolmaster, 


•■Tliey  were  not  set  apart  as  elders  until  the  year  following,  25tU  Ji 


PLAN   OF   TOWN-FOOT   OF  KILBJRCHAN 


ODDS  AND   ENDS. 


(h)  Kirk  Treasurers. 


Bailie  Jolin  Barbour,  senior, 
James  Young,  Weitlands,     .. 
Bailie  John  Barbour,  junior, 
John  Honeyman,  ... 
John  Anderson,     ... 
James  Orr,  Bankhead, 
James  Stevenson,  Auchinanu 
William  Edmund  Hardie,    .. 
Robert  Carruth,    ... 


appo 


nted 


1742. 
1744. 
1750. 
1771. 

1775. 
1S08. 
1825. 
1848. 
1882. 


(c)  Session  Clerks. 

—  M'Dougal. 

Michael  Garner,  schoolmaster, 

Laurence  Garner,  assistant, 
William  Simpson,  schoolmaster,  ...    * 

Robert  Ferguson,  ,,      " 

John  Findlay, 
John  Alexander, 

Mr.  William  Boyd,  Assistant  Ministn-, 
William  Manson,  i)ere,  schoolmaster,... 

Henry  Manson,  assistant, 
William  Manson, ^is',  schoolmaster,    ... 
William  Barr,  ,, 

John  Boyd,  „ 

Thomas  M'Crorie, 


1750. 

175S 

1758-60. 

17G4. 

1764- 

76. 

1776. 
1777. 
1778. 

1779- 

1822 

1834- 

48. 

1848- 

59. 

1859- 

77. 

1881- 

Alexander  Lyle,    ... 
Robert  Millar, 
John  King, 
William  Hodgson, 
John  Millar, 
Matthew  Wilson,... 
James  Muir, 


(d)  Prccentoii 


ab.  1820. 


1834-53. 

1853- 

1856. 

1856-88. 

1888- 


KILBARCHAN. 

(e) 

Church  Officers. 

John  Wilson, 

..    ab.  1628. 

Robert  Ljlle, 

1695. 

Hugh  Cocluau  in  G- 

ockh 

all, 

1750. 

Robert  WhitehiU, 

1752. 

Thonifis  Caldwell,... 

1753. 

William  Cochran,... 

1754. 

John  Scott, 

1756. 

Alexander  Houston, 

1767. 

John  Orr, 

1774. 

William  Orr, 

-1804. 

George  Davidson,... 

1804-23. 

Archibald  Thomson, 

1823-44. 

George  Wilson,     ... 

1844-90. 

John  Black, 

1890- 

III.— The  Parish   Church. 

Of  the  Church  razed  to  the  ground  in  1724,  part  dated  probably  from 
Ijefore  the  Pteformation.  On  that  occasion  Craigends'  aisle,  erected  about 
1700,  alone  escaped  demolition.^  About  1805,  John  Cuninghame  of  Craig- 
ends added  a  gallery  opposite  the  pulpit.  This  gallery  partly  projects  into 
the  church  proper  and  is  erected  partly  over  his  aisle.  In  1858,  the  church 
■was  enlarged  at  a  cost  of  about  £900.  On  this  occasion  were  added  the 
two  abutments  on  each  side  of  Craigends'  aisle,  the  tower  with  its  door 
and  stair,  and  the  outside  stair  near  the  west  door.  These  additions  had 
the  effect  of  enlarging  the  area,  of  allowing  the  erection  of  two  galleries, 
one  on  each  side  of  Craigends'  gallery,  of  permitting  the  inside  stairs 
to  the  east  and  west  galleries  to  be  removed,  and  the  east  and  north  doors 
to  be  closed.  Of  this  date  also  are  the  two  stained  glass  windows  on  the 
south  wall,  presented  by  Alexander  Cuninghame  and  Sir  Robert  Napier, 
and  the  coats  of  arms  on  the  front  of  the  galleries.  The  heraldic  descrip- 
tion of  these  shields  is  as  follows  : — 

1. — Impaled,  Dexter — Quarterly,  1st  and  4th  arg.,  a  shake  fork  gu. 
[Cuninghame]  ;  2nd  and  3rd  or,  a  fess  cheque  az.  and  arg.  [Stewart"). 
Sinister — Gu.,  a  dexter  hand  couped  at  the  wrist  grasping  a  swoid  point 
downwards  ppr.,  and  in  chief  two  mullets  of  the  last  [M'Hardy]. 

Ante,  p.  162. 


ODDS   AND   ENDS.  275 

2. — Quarterly,  1st  and  4th  gu.,  a  fess  cheque  arg.  and  az.  [Lindsay]  ; 
2nd  and  3rd  or,  a  Hon  rampant  gu.,  debruised  of  a  ribbon  sa.  [Abernethy], 

The  shield  is  that  of  the  Earl  of  Crawford  and  was  probably  intro- 
duced by  mistake  for  Craufurd  of  Auchinames. 

3. — Impaled,  Dexter — gu.,  a  bend  erm.,  charged  with  three  trefoils 
vert,  and  in  the  sinister  chief  point  a  cross  pattee  or  ;  on  a  chief  arg.,  a 
stag's  head  cabossed  sa.,  between  two  mullets  of  the  1st.  Sinister — the 
same  but  omitting  the  cross  pattee. 

The  shield  is  that  of  Harvey,  but  why  is  it  impaled  I 

4. — Quarterly,  1st  and  4th  arg.,  a  saltire  engrailed  between  four 
roses  gu.  [Napier]  ;  2nd  az.,  a  lion  rampant  ppr.  crowned  with  an  antique 
crown  or  [Macdowall] ;  3rd  arg.,  two  bars  gemelle  between  three  demi- 
lions,  two  in  chief  issuant  from  the  uppermost  bar  and  one  in  base  issuant 
from  the  base  of  the  shield  or  [Milliken]. 

5. — Az.  two  tilting  spears  in  saltire,  between  four  boar's  heads 
couped  or  ;  on  a  chief  arg.,  a  mullet  between  two  crescents  gu.  [Speir  of 
Burnbrae]. 

Attached  to  the  outside  wall  of  the  church  at  the  north-west  corner 
is  a  tombstone  bearing  the  name,  Elizabeth  Lindsay,  the  date,  1584,  and 
the  fess  cheque  of  the  Lindsays. 

The  new  Parish  Church,  which  cost  nearly  J 7000,  was  opened  on 
the  13th  January,  1901,  when  the  Rt.  Rev.  Norman  MacLeod,  D.D.. 
Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly,  conducted  Divine  worship. 


IV. — Quoad  Sacra  Parishes. 

Li  1880,  Linwood  was  erected  into  a  separate  Parish.      The  boundarv 
between  it  and  Kilbarchan  is  thus  described  : — 

Southerly  aad  westerly  from  the  boundary  between  the  Abbey  and  Kilbarchan  to 
a  point  in  the  road  past  Clippens  Square  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  railway  ;  thence 
north-westward  along  the  centre  of  the  said  road  having  Clippens  Square  to  the  east, 
to  a  point  therein  opposite  Linwood  Moss ;  then  northward  along  the  centre  of  the 
road  which  passes  to  the  east  of  Auchans  till  it  touches  the  boundary  between 
Houston  and  Kilbarchan. 

Li   1887,  Bridge  of  Weir  was  similarly  disjoined,  with  the  following- 
boundary  between  it  and  Kilbarchan  : — 


276  KILBARCHAN. 

Beginning  at  the  River  GryfFe  opposite  Ladeside,  thence  eastward  along  the  river 
to  Crosslee  at  Linningford  Bridge  ;  thence  along  the  high  road  to  Locherside  Bridge  ; 
thence  up  Locher  Water  to  Locher  Mill ;  thence  westward  along  the  high  road  past 
Manswraes  but  excluding  that  farm  ;  thence  proceeding  by  but  excluding  Shillingworth 
till  the  Lawmarnock  Road  is  reached  ;  thence  up  the  centre  of  Locher  Water  to 
Locher  Bridge  ;  thence  northward  along  the  boundary  of  Kilbarchan  Parish  till  it 
touches  the  Gryfte. 

In  1901,  St.  Andrew's  Parish,  Johnstone,  was  disjoined,  and  had 
allocated  to  it  the  land  to  the  east  of  the  road  between  the  Bridge  of 
Johnstone  and  Deafhillock  Toll,  and  to  the  south  of  the  road  between  the 
aforesaid  Toll  and  Linwood. 


V. — Sir  John   Cravfurds  Protocol  Booh} 

This  book  to  which  in  the  extracts  already  given  we  have  done  but 
meagre  justice,  supplies  us  with  some  interesting  and  amusing  glimpses 
of  the  manners  of  earlier  days. 

We  learn  that  evictions  were  as  frequent  then  in  Kilbarchan  as  in 
Ireland  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  : — 

1541  ? — Gabriel  Sympyll  of  the  xls.  land  of  Toris  commissions  his  sergand  and 
officiar  Jok  Or  to  evict  Jok  Andro,  Pate  Blackburne,  Hobe  Luif,  George  Parker  and 
William  Lang. 

Ap.  15,  1549  ? — Instrument  of  Gabriel  Sempill  of  Craigbet  and  Terrs  warning  his 
tenants  to  flit  at  Whitsunday. 

1549. — Gabriel  Sempill  of  Torris,  Weitlandis  and  Pennall-brais  required 
Jok  Patersoun  to  give  him  entry  [to  his  own  land]. 

Ap.  1,  1550. — Lord  Sempill  sent  his  sergeant  John  Layng  to  the  Weitlands  and 
seized  all  John  Orr's  goods  and  gear. 

The  victims  were  ready  to  take  refuge  beliind  legal  technicalities  and 
to  refuse  to  be  evicted  : — 

Ap.  1,  1550. — W.  Sempill  of  Cathcart  required  of  John  Layng  why  he  came  to 
his  ground  "  ane  pretendyt  and  alledgit  chaplen  to  the  feu  lands  of  Weytlandis  and 
pundit  the  saydis  landis  the  sayd  prest  nocht  haifand  no  presentation  nor  coUacioun 
ordinare." 

1544. — Robert  Merschell  being  warned  to  remove  from  a  maleyng  in  Auchinamis 
sits  still  because  he  ought  to  have  got  40  days  warning. 

'  Ante,  p.  205,  note  2. 


ODDS  AND  ENDS.  277 

Outgoing  tenants  were  expected  to  give  unquestionable  proof  that 
tliey  harboured  no  ill-will  towards  their  successors  : — 

29  Mar.  1548. — Jok  Lang  and  Agnes  Luif,  his  wife,  gave  their  mailling  iir 
Auchinclocht  to  Wm.  Wallace,  son  to  the  Laird  of  Elderslie  with  their  benison,  re- 
ceiving 55  marks  and  2  ky. 

The  interesting  symbols  of  sasine  were  not  omitted  even  in  a  trans- 
action between  husband  and  wife  : — 

25  Aug.,  1547.— John  Merschell  ....  passed  to  Merschell  Muir  together 
with  the  ward  and  iij  folds  lying  upon  it,  viz. — Murfauld,  Lytill  Fauld,  Robert  Lufe's 
fauld  and  gave  sasine  to  Malle  Hayr  and  the  bayrneis  gotten  betwixt  hym  and  hyr. 

Betrothal  took  place  in  the  presence  of  a  clergyman  : — 

Ab.  1544. — John  Lyndsay  and  Elspa  Knok  handfast  in  Sir  John  Craufurd's 
chalmer  at  the  Kirk  of  Kilbarchan. 

The  marriage  contract  between  Walter  Knok  and  Ellen  Hair  of 
Pinnel  [December  22,  1549]  is  a  business-like  document,  setting  forth 
that  the  mai*riage  is  to  take  place  before  Candlemas  next,  that  the  bride 
is  to  bring  with  her  90  merks  of  a  tocher,  40  merks  payable  between  this 
and  1st  May,  20  between  that  and  Beltane,  1551,  and  20  merks  in 
1552,  and  in  addition — 

Ellen  is  to  be  honestly  clothed  by  her  mother  and  brother  in  bed  and  bak  as 
efleris  to  ane  jentyll  woman  to  half. 

The  Church  was  held  to  be  the  proper  place  to  get  accounts  dis- 
charged : — 

16  Jan.,  1547. — John  Caldwell  indweller  in  Ryvrais  gets  from  a  notary  a  testi- 
monial that  he  was  ready  to  deliver  a  certain  sum  of  ni/  .ey  to  William  Sempill  of 
Third-part  upon  the  High  Altar  of  Kilbarchan,  as  to  whi-  .  William  had  charged  John 
in  the  town  of  Paisley  :  John  came  to  the  Church  and  waited  from  sun-rising  to  sun- 
setting  and  William  came  not.  John  protested  that  it  was  no  "  hurt  to  him  in  tym 
coming  nor  no  prejudice." 

The  following  strange  bequests  by  the  Vicar  of  Kilbarchan  are 
woith  mentioning  : — 

20  May,  1549. — Sir  James  Shaw  auld  Vicar  grants  and  gives  to  Elizabeth  Mudy, 
daughter  of  the  late  Sir  John  Mudy,  that  is  in  possession  of  the  kyrkhall  of  the 
wykyrrecht  (i.e.,  vicarage)  of  Kilbarchan  that  the  said  Sir  John  Mudy  biggit  at  his 
expens, — I,  Sir  James  Shaw,  will  that  the  said  Elizabeth  have  the  said  hall  yearly  for 
iiij  [pence  ?]  maill.  If  the  new  vicar,  Mr.  Simon  Shaw,  stop  or  put  Elizabeth  from  the 
hall  in  that  case  Elizabeth  may  intromit  with  the  tymmyr  of  the  hall. 


278  KILBARCHAN. 

Same  Day. — Jok  Fyndlay  required  ane  noit  at  quhar  Schir  James  Schaw  left  his 
black  gown  to  the  said  Jok  and  Margaret  Craufurd,  and  that  for  thankful  service  that 
they  had  done  to  him  and  for  other  causes. 

In  the  following  extracts  we  have  a  curious  mingling  of  light  and 
grave  slanders  : — 

Easter  Tuesday,  15-13. — Eobert  Houston  said  that  Sir  John  Craufurd  stole  grotes 
of  silver  from  Thomas  Kyll  and  bouttis  of  worsset  and  a  steyl  bonnet  and  was  a 
common  thief.  Bessie  Mudy  charged  him  with  eating  hony  plowmis  and  his  dejeuner 
and  that  sammye  day  sayd  mes,  and  that  he  brak  buythis  and  stole  the  articles  above 
named  from  Kyll  and  was  a  common  aratyk  [heretic  ?] 


VI. — Stone  Cist  at  LintwJiite. 

In  the  early  part  of  1901,  Mr.  Thomas  Fulton,  while  ploughing  a 
gravelly  ridge  east  of  Lintwhite  Farmhouse,  discovered  about  a  foot 
beneath  the  surface  what  was  evidently  a  pre-historic  grave.  The  sides 
and  top  of  the  cavity,  which  was  quite  empty,  were  composed  of  large 
slabs  of  sandstone. 


VII. — Town-foot  of  Kilharchan  and  Neigltbourliood. 

The  village  of  Kilbarchan  known  as  the  Kirktown,  consisted  two 
hundred  years  ago  of  a  few  houses  clustered  round  the  church.  Very 
few  of  the  houses  now  standing  are  of  so  early  a  date  as  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  there  are  not  very  many  even  of  tlie  eighteenth, 
yet  the  alignment  of  the  old  streets — if  they  could  be  called  streets — is  to 
some  extent  still  preserved,  e.g.,  at  the  Cross,  on  the  left  hand  side  of 
Shuttle  Street  and  of  Church  Street,  as  one  goes  from  the  Cross,  and 
perhaps  on  both  sides  of  Steeple  Street.  Of  this  old  village,  the  part 
known  as  Town-foot  has  disappeared  within  the  memory  of  several  still 
living  ;  it  is  the  information  derived  from  them  which  has  enabled  Mr. 
W.  H.  Howie,  architect,  to  prepare  the  accompanying  plan  of  this  part  of 
Kilbarchan.  The  following  are  some  of  those  who  owned  or  inhabited 
houses  in  this  neighbourhood  : — 

1.  The  Heather  House,  a  tavern,  of  which  George  M'Keich  was  the 

host ;  Francis  Davie  and  Mrs.  Inglis  lived  here. 

2.  Space  which  afforded  an  entrance  to  the  churchyard. 


ODDS  AND   ENDS.  27& 

3.  Thomas  Orr. 

4.  James  Allan. 

5.  Francis  Davie. 

6.  Janet  Davie. 

7.  William  Wallace  and  Matthew  Purdon. 

8.  William  Allan. 

9.  John  Love. 

10.  Gable,  barn,  smithy,  and  cart-shed  ;  John  Welsh,  smith. 

11.  Clajholes  ;  Annie  Drummond.     Opposite  this  house  there  was  a 

well. 

12.  Garden,  which  extended  to  the  street. 

13.  The  Poor- House,  otherwise  known  as  M'Farlane's  Hospital.      It 

stood  a  little  off  the  road,  and  was  built  by  the  Kirk  Session, 
26  March,  1830,  under  the  superintendence  of  Arthur  Lang, 
Burntshiels.  Money  for  the  purpose,  £50,  had  been  left  by 
George  M'Farlane  of  Clippings,  17  October,  1821. 

14.  A  house  of  two  storeys  ;   Duncan  MTntyre,  James  Speir,  Alex- 

ander Grant,  Sergeant  Macdonald. 

15.  Michael  M'Girdy,  mason. 

16.  Alexander  Lyle. 

17.  Robert  Houston,  John  Kidd  ;  opposite  this  house  there  was  a 

well. 

18.  Alexander    Kirkland  ;    this    house    was   afterwards   used    as    a 

female  school  of  which  Mrs.  Gavin  was  the  teacher. 

19.  Glentyan  Gate  ;  the  pillars  are  now  at  Meadside  Gate. 

20.  Old  Field  ;  John  Wallace. 

21.  James  Kirkwood  ;  this  was  an  old  flictory  and  was  used  after- 

wards as  a  place  of  entertainment.  Here  there  were  given 
penny  reels  and  theatrical  representations.  Amongst  those 
who  entertained  the  youth  of  Kilbarchan  were  William  and 
Samuel  Johnstone  or  Levingstone,  and  James  Burns,  a 
comedian.     It  was  known  as  Union  Hall. 

22.  Andrew  Jamieson. 

23.  William  Brymer. 

24.  Charles  Douglas. 

25.  Mrs.  Honeyman  ;  near  this  was  the  Old  Barn,  which  had  been 

converted  into  a  dwelling-house,  and  was  inhabited  by  Robert 
Millar  and  Mrs.  Robertson. 


KILBARCHAN. 

26.  Hugh  M'Keich,  the  father  of  George  M'Keich  of  the  Heather 

House. 

27.  Thomas  Houston. 

28.  Ptobert  Houston  and  WllHam  Christie. 

29.  William  Lyle. 

30.  Janet  Stevenson. 

31.  Archibald  Hunter. 

32.  Barn. 


VIII. — Chartism  in  Kilbarchan. 

As  might  be  expected  of  a  community  in  wliich  weaving  was  the 
chief  industry,  the  Chartist  movement  was  favourably  received  in  Kil- 
barchan. One  hesitates  to  say  that  it  was  enthusiastically  supported, 
since,  according  to  "  Arthur  Sneddon,"  who  by  the  way  was  himself  more 
prominent  in  speech  than  in  action,  a  Paisley  contingent  of  agitators 
as  they  passed  through  Kilbarchan  at  midnight  on  their  way  to  Pinnel 
Glen,  carrying  iron,  hammers,  anvil  and  bellows  for  the  purpose  of  forging 
pikes,  found  the  villagers  plunged  in  a  sleep  suspiciously  sound.  The  pre- 
concerted signal  was  again  and  again  made,  but  not  a  light  was  visible, 
not  even  a  dog  barked.  "  Of  course,"  he  says,  "  this  most  spirited  party 
had  to  return  to  Paisley,  heart-broken  at  the  apathy  of  the  Kilbarchan 
section  of  reformers.  I  was  of  opinion  that  the  Kilbarchan  people  had 
begun  to  see  the  folly  of  the  whole  matter,  and,  being  a  shrewd  set  of 
villagers,  had  cut  the  connection,  and,  it  would  appear,  induced  the  dogs 
to  do  the  same."     This  was  in  1820. 

Twenty  years  later,  when  the  policy  of  force  had  given  place  to  that 
of  moral  suasion,  a  flourishing  Chartist  congregation  sprang  u[)  in  Kilbar- 
chan, which  met  in  what  is  now  the  Good  Templars'  Hnll,  but  is  still 
known  by  some  as  the  Chartist  Chapel.  "A  (chartist  Church,"  writes 
Parkhill,  "  has  been  constituted,  and  a  talented  preacher,  to  say  the 
least  of  him,  has  been  inducted.  The  highways  and  the  byeways  are 
empty  on  Sabbath  days,  and  on  that  day  the  Fumart  is  unmolested  and 
at  rest  in  the  Pinnel  Glen.  This  change  must  be  a  source  of  great  con- 
solation to  the  lyious  patron  of  the  parish,  Sir  William  Napier.  His 
temper  .  .  .  was  often  tried  by  the  turbulent  immorality  of  the  little 
town  ;  and  the  way  in  which  they  spent  the  Sabbath  day  vexed,  in  no 
mean  degree,  his  righteous  spirit  ;  and,  in  particular,  the  quiet  in   which 


HABBIE  SIMPSON 

(h'riini  an  oil  /inintiny) 
Vide  paijes  2S1-2 


ODDS   AND   ENDS. 


he  loved  to  dwell  was  often  invaded  by  the  noise  of  the  villagers  crowded 
upon  the  Barrhill.  Now  all  is  quiet,  and  the  worthy  Baronet  may  exer- 
cise his  devotional  propensities  in  meekness  and  peace  without  the  pecidiar 
suavity  of  his  temper  being  ruffled." 


IX.—Kilharchaii  Poets  and  Men  of  Note. 

Every  parish  has  produced  some  men  whom  it  regards  as  notable, 
and  unquestionably  Habbie  or  Robert  Simpson  is  the  most  widely  known 
of  the  sons  of  Kilbarchan.  He  lived  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  was  thus  a  contemporary  of  Shakespeare.  In  early  life  he 
was  probably  a  retairier  in  the  family  of  Craigends  or  in  that  of  Johnstone, 
and  tradition,  supported  by  the  emblem  on  his  reputed  tomb-stone,  asserts 
that  in  later  life  he  combined  the  occupation  of  butcher  with  the  office  of 
town-piper.  Probably  without  foundation  is  the  well-known  tale  of  his  wife 
gaining  the  sympathy  and  opening  the  purse  of  the  Lady  of  Johnstone 
by  reporting  Habbie's  death,  of  the  husband  by  a  similar  tale,  mutatis 
mutandis,  appealing  to  the  feelings  of  the  Laird  with  satisfactory  results, 
and  of  the  couple  being  caught  red-handed  while  enjoying  the  fruits  of 
their  roguery ;  as  a  story  it  is  anticipated  in  the  Arabian  Nights. 
Neither  ai'e  these  good  grounds  for  maintaining  that  Habbie,  like  Niel 
Blane,  held  an  official  appointment  as  a  piper,  with  a  salary  of  five 
merks,  free  occupancy  of  a  piper's  croft,  and  a  suit  of  livery  per  annum.' 
In  Habbie's  case  the  office  began  and  ended  with  his  occupancy.  The 
piper  was  present  at  every  wedding  and  scene  of  festivity,  to  the  merri- 
ment of  which  he  contributed  not  only  as  a  musician,  but  also  as  the  butt 
of  many  a  broad  witticism  and  the  victim  of  many  a  practical  joke.  It  is 
said  that  a  competition  took  place  between  him  and  a  brother  artist,  Rab 
the  Ranter,  but  there  is  no  information  as  to  the  basis  on  which  superiority 
was  to  be  determined — whether  mere  lung  power,  or  extent  of  repertoire, 
or  excellence  in  musical  rendering — nor  as  to  the  result  of  the  contest. 

The  wooden  statue  of  Habbie,  placed  in  the  niche  of  the  steeple  in 
1821,  is  the  work  of  Archibald  Robertson,  a  figure-head  carver  in  Greenock, 
who  afterwards  went  to  Liverpool,  where  he  attained  considerable  fame 
as  an  artist  in  wood.  In  the  possession  of  Mr.  James  Caldwell,  Paisley, 
there  is  an  oil-painting  of  unknown  date   which   I'epresents   the   piper 

'  Old  Mortality,  Chap.  iv. 
M  2 


282  KILBARCHAN. 

garishly  decked  with  ribbons,  flowers  and  feathers.  This  picture  at  one 
time  belonged  to  a  descendant  of  the  Beltrees  family  resident  in  Greenock, 
and  Robertson  probably  used  it  as  his  model. 

The  kindred  arts  of  music  and  poetry,  probably  fostered  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  famous  piper,  were  assiduously  cultivated  in  Kilbarchan, 
James  Buchanan  [175G-1829],  a  weaver,  an  antiquary,  and  a  musician, 
taught  music  in  Shuttle  Street,  and  had  as  a  pupil  James  Barr  [1781- 
1860],  who  was  the  composer  of  the  air,  Tlioy,  boiinie  wood  of  Craigidee, 
and  whom  Tannahill  addi 


Blyth  Jamie  Barr  frae  St.  Barchan's  toon. 

Though  born  in  Tarbolton,  Barr  spent  his  early  year's  in  Kilbarchan,  and 
emigrated  to  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  in  1832.  On  returning  to  Scot- 
land twenty  years  later,  he  settled  in  Govan,  but  the  simple  stone  in 
the  U.F.  churchyard,  bearing  his  name  and  his  wife's,  shows  that  he  was 
buried  in  Kilbarchan. 

Robert  Allan,  the  poet,  was  born  at  Townfoot  in  1774.  Of  his 
family  of  six  Robert,  the  second  son,  was  an  artist ;  and  Mary,  the  eldest 
daughter,  was  the  wife  of  John  MacGregor,  Beltrees  Cottage,  and  mother 
of  Mr.  O.  G.  MacGregor,  Church  Street,  who  shares  with  Mr.  James 
Caldwell,  Paisley,  the  credit  of  being  the  best  living  authority  on  Kil- 
barchan traditions.  The  poet,  accompanied  by  some  of  his  family, 
emigrated  to  America  in  the  year  1841,  and  died  a  few  days  after  reach- 
ing New  York.  George  Allan,  apothecary  in  Kilbarchan,  brother  to  the 
poet,  author  of  Antediluvian  Histories  and  A  Key  to  the  Revelation,  was 
one  of  the  higher  critics  of  his  day. 

William  M'Oscar  [1807-77],  the  poet,  though  born  in  Lochwinnoch, 
was  bi-Qught  while  yet  a  child  to  Kilbarchan.  Rendered  by  an  accident 
unfit  for  physical  labour,  he  received  a  good  education.  After  spending 
some  years  as  a  tutor  of  ancient  and  modern  languages  at  Paisley,  as 
editor  of  a  local  jsaper  at  Irvine  and  a  theatrical  journal  at  Glasgow,  he 
went  to  London,  where  most  of  his  poems  were  written.  He  died  at 
Kilbarchan,  Jan.  11,  1877. 

Robert  Buchanan,  poet,  novelist,  and  journalist,  who  died  in  1901, 
claimed  Kilbarchan  as  his  birthplace. 

William  Motherwell,  when  engaged  about  1825  in  collecting  materials 
for  his  Minstrelsy,  Ancient  and  Modem,  reaped  a  considerable  harvest  in 
Kilbarchan.  Here  he  collected  no  fewer  than  thirty  ballads  or  versions 
of  ballads.     Fourteen  pieces  were  contributed  by  Agnes  Lyle,  born  about 


ODDS  AND   ENDS.  283 

1775,  who  learned  them  from  her  father,  born  about  1731.  Mrs. 
Thomson  and  Agnes  Lyle  contributed  six  versions  each  ;  tlie  former, 
however,  who  was  born  at  Bonliill,  cited  her  mother,  probably  a  Dum- 
bartonshire woman,  as  her  authorit}^  To  Mrs.  Kinc4  lie  owed  two,  and  to 
Edward  King,  weaver,  and  Janet  Holmes,  one  each  ;  the  contribution 
of  the  last-named,  "  Fair  Annie,"  Janet  described  as  "  a  lang  rane  "  of 
her  mother's.  "  Of  these  ballads,"  says  Dr.  Soutar,  "  Prince  Robert, 
Johnie  Scot,  Lady  Maisry,  The  Doivie  Dens  o  Yarrow,  Child  Maurice, 
Sou  Davie,  and  Lord  Derwcntwater,  appeared  in  Motherwell's  Minstrelsy , 
Ancient  and  Modern.  The  others  were  printed  by  Child  from  a  tran- 
scription of  Motherwell's  manuscript.  They  cannot  be  said  to  rank  high 
poetically,  but  that  fact  is  in  their  favour  as  specimens  of  folk-song,  and 
goes  to  prove  that  Motherwell  wrote  them  down  without  embellishments. 
While  always  outspoken  and  possessing  a  full  share  of  savage  purity,  they 
are  rarely  merely  vulgar  and  never  consciously  prurient,  thus  pointing  to 
genuine  ancient  originals." 

Amongst  those  connected  with  Kilbarchan  who  achieved  distinction 
in  other  walks  of  life  may  be  mentioned  : — 

Dr.  PiOBERT  Hume,  who  operated  on  the  Marquis  of  Anglesea  when 
wounded  on  the  field  of  Waterloo,  and  was  afterwards  physician  to  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  ; 

Dr.  Peter  Cochran,^  of  Clippens,  who  had  served  his  apprenticeship 
with  Dr.  How  ; " 

Dr.  Macfarlane.  an  eminent  physician  in  Glasgow  fifty  years  ago  ; 

Dr.  James  Douglas,  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the  Andersonian  College ; 

Dr.  John  Scouler,  son  of  William  Scouler  of  Locher,  Professor  of 
Natural  Histoi'y  in  the  Andersonian  College,  and  afterwards  Professor  of 
Mineralogy  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Dublin  ; 

Sir  Isaac  Holden,  a  great  manufacturer  in  the  Midlands,  M.P.  for 
Knaresborough,  and  the  reported  real  inventor  of  the  lucifer  match  ;  and 

The  Misses  Smith,^  of  Spring  Grove,  discoverers  of  the  Sinaitic 
palimpsest. 

X. — Present-day  Kilbarchan. 

The  industrial  changes  which  have  overtaken  Kilbarchan  during  the 
last  thirty  or  forty  years,  call  for   some   remarks.      Cereal   crops  and  fat 

'  Ante,  pp.  141-2.  -  Ante,  p.  124  n.  '■>  Ante,  p.  25. 


284  KILBAKCHAN. 

cattle,  upon  which  at  one  time  the  whole  attention  of  farmers  was  con- 
centrated, have  given  place  to  dairying,  with  the  result  that  more  labour 
is  thrown  on  the  women  of  the  family.  In  some  cases  the  farmer,  while 
he  owns  and  supplies  feeding  for  the  milk  cows,  hires  or  lets  them  to  a 
milkman  or  bower.  On  certain  selected  farms  fruit,  especially  straw- 
berries, are  grown  with,  it  is  believed,  good  results. 

In  the  village,  where  thirty-five  years  ago  there  were  about  nine 
hundred  looms,  there  are  to-day  only  about  two  hundred  with  mountings 
and  ready  for  work,  and  the  weaving  shops  are  being  converted  into 
dwelling  houses.  It  is  to  be  expected  that,  twenty  years  hence,  the 
hand-loom  and  the  pirn-wheel  will  have  become  treasured  curiosities. 
Weavers,  who  learned  their  trade  in  Kilbarchan,  have  found  employment 
in  Glasgow  and  Paisley  warehouses,  though  many  of  them  still  make  their 
homes  in  their  native  village.  Mechanical  engineering  appears  to  afford 
the  best  openings  for  young  men,  and  young  women  find  employment  in 
the  Locher  Printfield,  in  the  flax-  and  paper-mills  in  Johnstone,  in  the 
thread  works  in  Paisley,  and  in  Glentyan  Laundry. 

Bridge  of  Weir  has  become,  during  the  last  twenty  years,  a  favourite 
place  of  residence  for  Glasgow  men  of  business  ;  and  the  district  of 
Linwood,  the  cotton  industry  having  deserted  it  and  mining  operations 
being  meanwhile  in  abeyance,  seems  to  be  dependent  on  its  paper  mill. 


APPENDIX 


CONTRIBUTED   BY   MR.   JAIMES   CALDWELL,   PAISLEY. 

The  following  Rent  Roll  of  the  Kilbarchan  estate  of  the  widow  of  Captain  Napier 
(nee  Jean  IMilliken)  for  the  year  1785,  with  appended  notes  of  the  changes  which  took 
place  in  1786  and  in  1787,  will  be  of  interest  to  many  in  the  Parish,  some  of  whom, 
after  the  lapse  of  116  years,  are  still  in  possession  of  the  feus  held  by  their  fore- 
fathers. It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  superior,  INlrs.  Napier,  was  at  the  time  a 
widow,  and  resided  with  her  wido\\ed  mother,  ^Irs.  James  Milliken,  at  ]Milliken,  and 
that  these  feu-duties  and  ftirnis  represent  the  portion  of  the  estate  settled  on  her  by 
her  father  :— 

RENTAL  OF  Mrs.  NAPIER'S  ESTATE  OF  KILBARCHAN,  CROP,  1785. 
I.— FEU   DUTIES. 
1.   William  Hair's,  now  divided  as  follows  : — 

i.  William  Hair  pays, £0     7     2^ 

ii.   William  Clemie, ". 0     7     2^^ 

£0  14     5tV 

?.  The  Heirs  of  William  Arthur,  mason 0  10     4 

3.  John  Barbour,  Senr., 0  18  11/^ 

4.  James  Miller's  Heirs,  £2  8s.  4d.,  now  divided  as  follows : — 

i.  John  Clark  pays  £0  11     0 

ii.  John  Smellie,  0  11     0 

iii.  James  Adam,  0  10     0 

iv.  Peter  Miller,    0     8     4 

V.  Margaret  Lyle,    0     8     0 

2     8     4 

5.  Hugh  King,  0  16     Ot\ 

6.  John  Park,  Elder. 0  15     4 

7.  James  Kelsoe,     0     2     0 


)  APPENDIX. 

8.  William  Hill, I'O  2  0 

9.  Alexander  Parker, 0  2  0 

10.  William  Lyle,    0  2  0 

11.  John  Stevenson, 0  2  0 

12.  James  Waliver,   0  2  0 

13.  John  Laird,    0  2  0 

1 4.  Robert  Caldwell I  0  TtV 

1.5.  John  Hair,  taylor, 1  2  6 

16.  William  Speir,  Gladston, 0  7  6 

17.  John  Barbour,    0  U  1 

18.  William  Bredine,  Damton,  3.s.  4d.,  divided  as  follows  : — 

i.   William  Bredine  pays £0     2     2^ 

ii.   William  Barbour 0     1      1  ,V 

0  3  4 

19.  Thomas  Orr,  for  two  tenements,    i'O     8     4 

20.  Do.,  „  another  house, 0     5     0 

0  13  4 

21.  Alexander  Wyllie,  smith, 0  13  lOy^ 

22.  William  Bredine,  Wright, 0  6  5/. 

23.  John  Scott,    0  7  6 

24.  John  Speir,  £Q  10     6 

25.  Do.,         for  another  house,  0     3     4 

0  13  10 

26.  William  Ewing, 0  8  5 

27.  James  Brown,     1  16  0 

28.  James  Dick,   0  10  0 

29.  Hugh  Craig,  1  11  0 

30.  James  Aiken, 2  0  0 

31.  James  Greenlees  &  Son,    0  14  8 

32.  John  Speir,  for  Moss-side,    0  5  6jrr 

33.  John  Houstoun,  merchant,  3  0  10j% 

34.  John  Stewart,    0  2  0 

35.  Heirs  of  Ebenezer  Campbell,    2  0  0 

36.  John  AVhitehill, 0  12  8 

37.  David  Kerr,  mason,  1  15  S/ir 

38.  James  Stevens,  17  6 

39.  John  Orr,  for  a  park,  £6     0     0 

40.  Do.,     feu  duty, 1     4  10^ 

7  4  lOA' 

41.  Walter  Caldwell,  feu  duty,   0  11  1 

42.  Do.,  rent  of  Quarry  Park,    .-flO     0     0 

i.   But   from    which  deduce  Bel  trees'  and 

ii.         John  Stewart's  feus,    0     9     4<^% 

9  10  7t'' 


APPENDIX. 
43.  James  and  Alexander  Finlays'  rent  of  Heathry  House 

^2 
0 
1 
0 
0 
0 

1 

2 

1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
8 

18 
0 

5 
0 

1 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

1 
1 

0 

1 

0 
0 

1 

10     0 
8     9 

45.  Walter  Pinkerton, 

9     2  " 

46.  "William  Tarbet,     

11     6 

47.  John  How, 

15     1  '' 

7     2 

3     8 

50.  Do.,       new  feu,  

51.  Beltrees,  for  Little  Park, 

..  £2 

0 
0 

0 
0 

10     0 

i.  Deduce  Patrick  Barr's  and 
ii.  ]\Iattw.  Fleming's  feus,    

...     1 

0     0 
10     2 

52.  Alexander  Smith,  

53.  Alexander  Murdoch, 

16  10,",, 

54.  William  Arthur,  dyke  builder,     

9    6;':. 

55.  James  Paton, 

9  11 

9  11 

57.  Walter  Caldwell  and  Alexr.  Lvle,  Barrbush 

Park,. 
..£1 
..   17 

0     0 

58.  Alexander  Speirs,  merchant,  

59.  Do.,               for  new  feu,    

0 

8 

10 

5^% 

9     3A 
10     1-'' 

60.   David  Cuniniing,   

61.  Mrs.  Campbell,  for  an  enclosure, 

0     0 

62.  Thomas  Honeyman,  

11     3 

63.  John  Erskine, 

Do.,           for  casway, 

. .  £0 
..     0 

17 
5 

0 
0 

2     0 
12     0 

64.  Andrew  Smith,  

15     2/, 

66.  John  Tarbet, 

16     0 

67.  Robert  Reid, 

15     4,^ 

68.  William  Love,   

17  lO-i".. 

69.  John  Smellie, 

13     6 

70.  George  Barr, 

6     1 

71.  John  Gardner,    

14     4  '■ 

72.  William  Park,    

11     9 

73.  Thomas  and  Robert  C'ald wells,  

Do.                  do.,                 for  casway,  . 

..^1 
..     0 

12 

7 

4 

19     6 

10     3t% 
1     6 

74.  Thomas  Caldwell,  cartier, 

76.  James  Cochran, 

..£1 
..     0 

9 
6 

3A 

8 

Do.,              for  casway. 

15  llA 

APPENDIX. 

John  M'Kindlay,  now  Alexr.  Semple,    £1     2  10 

Do.,  for  casway, 0     6     0 


97.  Mrs.  Campbell,  for  new  feu,    TO     1     3 

Do.,  for  casway, 0     6     8 

98.  Patrick  Barr, 

99.  Matthew  Fleeniing,  

100.  John  How,  feu  duty  for  part  of  old  Glebe,     

101.  John  Orr,  son  of  Robert  Orr,  

102.  George  Thomson,  smith,  

103.  William  Neilson,    


2  19     0 


78.  AValter  Caldwell  pays  6s.  of  feu   duty  for  a  house,  but  by 

Mr.  Milliken's  missive  to  him  it  does  not  connnence  till 
expiry  of  the  tack  of  Quarry  Park. 

79.  James  Dick,  wright,  for  a  house,  now  William  Barbour's,... 

80.  John  Park,  Junr.,  now  AVilliam  ParkV, £1     9     0 

Do.,  for  casway, 0     2     0 

81.  James  Gaven,  ^2     7     0 

Do.,  for  proportion  of  casway, 0  12     0 

82.  William  Barbour,    -(?0  15     9 

Do.,  for  proportion  of  casway,...     0     6     1 

83.  Peter  :M iller,  now  John  Watson's,   

84.  Robert  Speir,  shoemaker, 

85.  Beltrees' feu,  

86.  John  Lyle, 

87.  John  Barbour,    

88.  John,  James,  and  William  Gavens, 

89.  Mr.  John  Warner,  for  a  little  park,     

90.  Matthew  Pa terson,    „     feu,     

91.  Alexander  Murdoch, 

92.  John  Stewart 

93.  James  Grant, 

94.  William  Park,  for  new  feu,  

N.B. — Park  allowed  to  retain  his  feu  duty  till  paid  £5 
for  expense  of  laving  his  fund  of  his  house. 

95.  John  Houstoun,  for  new  feu,   0  15     2i% 

96.  Patrick  Barr,  baker,     i^O  18     1 

Do.,  for  caswav, 0     6     8 


1  1 

10 

0  12 

1 

2  3 

4W 

1  19 

0  11 

3 

0  12 

1 

3  14 

0 

1  0 

0 

0  17 

6 

0  8 

0 

0  « 

0 

0  17 

9 

0  10 

6A 

1     4     9 


0 

7 

11 

1 

14 

8i 

1 

18 

10 

o 

1 

0 

2 

0 

0 

0 

15 

0 

0 

8 

4 

APPENDIX. 

104.  William   Campbell,   writer,  for   feu    of  the   remainder   of 

Steeple  Park,  £\   11  6 

105.  Robert  Blackburn,     115  0 

106.  \V'illiani  Manson,  schoolmaster,    1      0  0 

107.  Willm.  Gavin,  for  feu  duty  of  part  of  Quarry  Park, 3     0  0 

108.  John  OiT,  sawer  in  Kilbarchan,  for  part  of  do.,          218  0 

109.  John  King,  weaver,    0  17  9 


i'Ug     9     6  A 


Deduce   the  following  casway   money,  as   now    no   longer 
payable,  viz. : — 

John  Erskine's  (63) ^0     5     0 

Thomas  and  Robert  Caldwell's  (73),       0     7     4 

■    James  Cochran's  (76),  0     6     8 

Alexander  Semple's  (77), 0     6     0 


^148 


11.— F.\RMS. 


Tenants'  Names. 


-1    ^ 

3   <S 


Brought  forward, . 


110.  Robert  Aiken,  Kamehill,   .CO  10    4^ 

111.  John  Millar,  Locherside,     ...  0    3    4 

112.  James  Aiken,     Lochermiln,    ...  0    2    6 

113.  Archibald  Morrison,  Hardgate, 0    1     6 

114.  Matthew  Barr, Manswrae, 0    111 

115.  Mathew  Aiken, Lintwhite, 0    2    4 

116.  Robt.  Caldwell, Uperauchinsale,  0    6    8^ 

117.  Arehd.  Arthur, Netlierdo.,  0    6    lA 

118.  John  Clerk,    Auchincloich,  0  12    2-f-^ 

Do.,        a  Lamb, ...  

119.  Alexander  Lyle,     ...Over  Johnston,  ...  12    4 


...  337... 
...1214... 
21  ...    812 


24, 


12  6. 
...  8, 
...    6 


12  12 


^^148  4  6t 

125  0  0 

42  0  0 

8  0  0 

4  5  0 

21  0  0 

10  0  0 

34  0  0 

18  10  0 

54  0  0 

0  2  6 

15  0  0 


£2    6  111^36  25  39  9912i:'480     2     0^ 


APPENDIX. 

Vicarage  as  above, j?2     6  llrf 

36  Loads  of  Coal,  at  2Ad„    0     7  6 

25  Bolls  of  Meal,  at  Ids., 20     0  0 

39  Chickens,  at  4d.,  0  13  0 

99  Hens,  at  Is., 4  19  0 

12  Capons,  at  Is,  4d.,    0  16  0 


FOR  CROP,  1786. 

Heirs  of  John  Barbour,  Senr.,  divided  as  follows  : — 

i.  John  Barbour,  Junr., £0     8     Ofr. 

ii.  Heirs  of  William  Barbour, 0  10  11 


13.  John  Laird,  now  Hugh  Walker. 

40.  John  ( )rr"s  feu  duty,  divided  as  follows  : — 

i.   ^^  iiliani     Barbour's     heirs,     for     Robert 

Tarbefs  house, £0  10     0 

ii.  John  Orr 0  14  10^ 


42.   Deduct  also, 

iii.   AVilliani  Manson's  feu,    ^'0     7     6 

iv.   AVilliam  Gavin's       „      1     4     9 

V.  John  Orr\s  „      14     0 

vi.  John  King's  „      0     6     l^i 

Cf.  with  Nos.  106-9. 
44.  John  jMflcrac's,  now  Alexander  Cochrane's. 

53.  Alexander  INIurdoch's  feu  duty,  divided  as  follows : — 

i.  Alexander  Murdoch,   £0     8     4i 

ii.  James  Stevenson, 0     8     6 

54.  VA'illiam  Arthur,  now  James  Stewart. 

62.  Thomas  Honeyman,  now  the  heirs  of  William  Barbour. 
67.  Robert  Reid,  now  the  heirs  of  James  Barr,  Mill  of  Cart. 
70.  George  Barr's  feu  duty,  divided  as  follows  : — 

i.  George  Ban-,    ^0  13     4i 

ii.  Alexander  Laird 0  12     8i 

77.  John  M'Kindley,  now  the  heirs  of  Alexander  Semple. 

86.  John  Lyle,  now  John  How, 

88.  John  Gavin. 

93.  James  Grant,  now  Robert  Aiken. 


29     2     5i| 
=^509    4    6 


1     4  10^ 


Alexander  Lyle,  of  Over  Johnsti)ne,  no  meal  rent 
Total,  21  bolls  of  meal,  at  15s.  id. 


FOR  CROP,  1T87. 

FEUS. 

78.  Deleted. 

79.  James  Dick. 

80.  John  Park. 

91.   Alexander  Murdoch,  Junr. 
109.  AJicr  tJtis  add— James  Ban; i^O  19     0 


21  bolls  of  meal,  at  16s. 


II. 

ADDITIONAL  NOTES  ON  RANFURLY  BY  MR.  HORATIUS  BONAR,  W.S. 

ERRATA. 
Page  224,  line  14. — Read  "  Craganys  "  for  "  Craiganys." 
„  „    16. — Read  "  Grifis  castell  "  for  "Grifiacastel." 

,,  „    17. — Read  "  terce  "  for  "  tierce." 

,,  .,    31 — Delete  "  annually." 

„    33.— Read  "No.  14  "  for  "  No.  4." 
„  „    34. — Read  "  i."  for  "  iii." 

P.ige  225,  line    3. — Insert  "  and  Jean  married  John  Porterfield  of  Duchal." 

„  lines  13-14. — Omit  "The  last  mentioned  married  John  Porterfield  of  Duchal." 
,,         line  17. — Read  "terce  "  for  "  tierce." 
Page  226,  line  29.— Read  "Noble"  for  "  Macgill." 
Page  260,  line  20. — Read  "  two  "  for  "  one." 
„    21. — Read  "  two"  for  "  one." 

Rankuuly — Knox.  Page  224,  lines  7-9. — The  sentence  here  should  rather  read  that 
Uchtred  was  a  name  used  by  the  Knoxes  of  Ranfurly  and  Silvieland.  These 
families  and  the  Knoxes  of  Knox  were  probably  all  related,  though  this  has  not 
been  verified. 

Page  225,  lines  1-3.—"  V.  Uchtred,  1536—1553."  From  his  will,  dated 
13th  July,  1553,  we  find  that  he,  like  his  father,  left  four  pence  to  St.  Mango's,. 
Glasgow.  He  appointed  his  spouse,  "  Jonet  Sempill,"  "  Jonet  Knox,  his  younger 
daughter,"  and  "  William  Fleming  of  Barchan,"  as  his  executors.  "  William 
Bawntin  de  Ardok  "  was  one  of  the  witnesses  to  the  will. 

I  have  seen  it  stated  that  Janet,  who  is  mentioned  as  his  younger  daughter, 
was  married  to  James  Fleming  of  Barochan,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify 
this.  We  know,  also,  that  a  "  Jean  Knox,"  daughter  of  a  Laird  of  Ranfurly,  was 
married  to  John  Porterfield  of  Duchal.  She  was  probably  the  elder  daughter  of 
this  Uchtred,  as  she  was  married  in  1545  (Murray's  Kilmacolm,  page  241).  On 
pages  33-35  of  that  work,  some  account  of  her  will  be  found.  She  died  October^ 
1615  (Hamilton  and  Campsie  Commissariot  Records). 

David  Crawfoord,  in  his  account  of  the  Knoxes  (Macfarlane's  Genealogical 
Collections,  vol.  II.,  page  278,  Scottish  History  Society  (an  account,  however,  not 
to  be  relied  on  for  accuracy),  states  that  Uchtred  had  a  daughter,  Hewissa, 
married  to  John  Bawntin  of  Ardok.     I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  this. 

Page  226,  line  9. — Though  the  Earl  of  Ranfurly  claims  descent  from  the 
Knoxes  of  Ranfurly — most  probably  founding  on  the  statements  in  David  Craw- 
foord's  account — I  am  satisfied,  after  investigation,  that  he  is  certainly  not  the 
direct  heir  of  the  Ranfurly  family,  and  that,  indeed,  there  is  no  evidence  of  his 
having  any  connection  with  it.  I  hope  elsewhere  to  show  this  more  in  detail. 
Ranfurly — Cunnin'jham.  The  whole  of  this  property  seems  at  one  time  to  have 
belonged  to  the  Earls  of  Glencairn.  Before  1531  they  had  sold  Tor,  Threeplie, 
and  Craigbet  to  Lord  Lyle,  who  in  that  year  sold  these  lands  to  the  Sempills  of 
Ladymuir,  in  whose  possession  they  remained  till  about  1634,  when  they  passed 
to  the  Cunninghams  of  Craigans.  In  1745  the  Cunninghams  sold  them  to  the 
then  Earl  of  Glencairn. 


THE  DESCENDANTS  OF  BAILIE  BARBOUR  [p.  248]. 

HcMPHREY  Bakbour  (3)  married  Janet  Freeland,  and  had  amongst  others  the  following 
issue : — 

John,  who  resided  at  Old  Hall,  Kilbarchan. 

Robert  [b.  1797,  d.  1885],  whose  only  son  is  George  Bai-bour,  Esq.,  of  Bolesworth 
Castle,  Chester. 

George  Freeland  [b.  1810,  d.  1887],  late  of  Bonskeid  and  Gryffe,  whose  son  is 
A.  H.  Freeland  Barbour,  M.D.,  Esq.,  of  Gryffe. 

Of  the  marriage  of  William  Stuart  and  Janet  Barbour  (3)  there  was  a  daughter, 
Janet,  afterwards  Mrs.  Beatson,  whose  son,  William  Stuart  Beatson,  Colonel  in  the 
Indian  Army,  mai-ried  Miss  Humphreys.  Of  this  marriage,  there  was  a  son  of  the 
-same  name  as  his  father.  Captain  in  the  Bengal  Cavalry,  who  fell  in  the  Mutiny. 
Captain  Beatson  married  in  1851,  Cornelia  Brownlow,  niece  of  Lord  Lurgan,  and  a 
son  of  the  marriage,  Stuart  Brow  nlow  Beatson,  is  still  alive. 

By  her  second  marriage  with  Sheriff  Blair,  Janet  Barbour  had  a  son,  George 
Blair,  who  married  Catherine  Blair ;  of  this  marriage  there  was  a  son,  George  Beatson 
Blair,  father  of  Mr.  Campbell  Blair  of  Manchester.  The  last  named  gentleman  has  in 
his  possession  an  in  metnoriam  ring  containing  some  of  Bailie  Barbour's  hair. 

Matilda  Ferguson  Stiven,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Jacks,  late  M.P.,  is  a  descendant  of 
Bailie  Barbour,  her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Stiven,  having  been  a  grand-daughter  of  the 
Bailie. 

Barbara,  daughter  of  Bailie  John  Barboiu%  Junior,  married  a  Writer  to  the 
Signet  of  the  name  of  Smith. 


INDEX 


The  Index  is  confined  to  the  Names  of  Places  in  Kilbarchav,  and  of  Persons  intimately 
connected  idth  it. 

The  letters  "  P.T.R."  stand  for  "  Poll  Tax  Roll,"  pp.  lld-Hl. 


Abercrumbie 

Elizabeth 123 

Margaret 64 

Abernetby,  John  A 269 

Adam 

James 285 

John 3S,  75 

P.T.K 121,  126,  131,  136,  138,  140,  141 

Adamson,   Patrick 52,  55 

Aikinhead.  Janet ..   124 

Aird,   John 162 

Aitken,  Ailtn,  Ailkyn,  Atkyn 

James , 262,  286,  289 

John 40,  41,  262 

Matthew 262,  289 

Ninian 99 

Robert 262,  272,  2S9,  290 

William 60 

P.T.R passim 

Alexander 

Isobel 99 

James :....   156 

Janet  98 

John 273 

P.T.R 120,  129,  131,  13S 

Algeo 

Claud 63 

Thomas  63 

Alison,  Allison,  Allasoun,  Allansone,  etc. 

George 268 

Margaret 65 

Matthew 268 

Robert 270,  271 

The  Allasouns .• 184 

William 153,  270 

P.T.R....  121,  123,  125,  128,  131,  132,  137,  139 


Allan 

George 282 

James  279 

Robert 282 

William 279 

Anderson,  Andersoune,  etc. 

John 40,  272,  273 

Mathew 272 

Mrs 125  n. 

P.T.R 135 

Andrew,  Andro 

David 78,  270 

John 86,  87,  276 

Robert 270 

P.T.R 123,  125,127,  136 

Antony,  Master 33 

Archibald,  Robert 268 

Arthur,  Arthotir,  etc. 

Andrew 75,  78,  270 

Archibald 116,  270,  289 

William 285,  287,290 

P.T.R 121,  129,  134,  135,  138 

Auchans,   Auchijnh,    Achynge,  Achinchoss,  Aikens, 

etc.,  33,  34,  40,  53,  107,  129,  191,  193,  246, 

249,  275 

Auchinames,   Achinamys,  Achnems,  etc.,  246,  248, 
276  ;  Baron  of.  Lady,  Laird  of,  Wardland  of,  1, 
48,  49,  56,  72,  139,  153,  211,  248,  264 
See  Craufurd. 

Auchincloich, 8,  126,  183,  246,  248,  260,  289. 

Auchindunan 34,   79,  88,  124,  249 

Auchinsale,  -seal,  etc 127,  246,  249,  260,  289 

Baird,  P.T.R 121,  134,  135 

Bankhead 211,  249 

Banks 139,  249 


296 


INDEX. 


Bannatyne,  Banntine 

Jean 

William  

Barbour 

Humphrey 162,  175, 

John 76,  151,  154,  163,  164,  168,  175,  : 

248,  271,  273,  285,  286,  288,  290, 

Mary 

Messrs 

Thomas 

William 286,  288, 

P.T.R 121,  122,  125,  129,  130, 

Barbush,  Barr,  Bar's- 121,  175,  247,249, 

Barclay,  Mr 

Bar-hill  and  -holm  5,  177,  246,  247, 

Barmufflock 7,  136,  249, 

Barnaigh 2,  120, 

Barnbeth 135,  224,  250, 

Barnbrock 2,  3,  135,  250, 

Barngreen 

Bar-pennald  32, 

Barr,  Bai- 

George 183,287, 

James 282, 

Lands  of  138,  153,  163,  213,  214,  246,  247, 

Matthew 

Patrick 166,  271,  287, 

Kobert  37, 

William  147,  252, 

P.T.R 121,  128,  129,  133,  135,  137,  138, 

Barroch   

Barsyde  121,  247, 

Baverage,  Baneradge 

P.TR 124,  128,  131, 

Begg,  Janet    

Bell,  John 66, 

Beltrees 

Cottage    

Laird  of  86,  286,  287, 

See  Sempill. 

3erchan,  Barchan,  etc. 

Saint 11-24, 

Berchan's  Day 

Berryfaulds 

Between-the-Hills,  Betwixt-  137,  154, 

Beyoud-the-HiU   

Birkmyre 

John 

Robert  

Black 

James  210,  262, 

John  196, 

P.T.R 128, 

Blackburn 

.       Peter 


Blackbuin 

William  289 

Blackstoun,  Blaxton,  etc.. ..2.,  7,  34,  41,  53,  63,  65, 
88,  99,  133,  153,  172  n.,  242,  246,  2.'')0 
Blair 

Catherine  78 

Robert  271 

^ 183 

P.T.R 123,  126,  128,   140 

Boghouse 137,  153,  177.  250 

Boll,  P.T.R 128,  133,  134,  140 

Bonar,  Horatius 261,  292 

Boog,  P.T.K 134 

Bootatoun,  Butstoun,  etc 35,  129,  198,  250 

Borland,  Bore-,  Boar- 125,  154,  213,  214,  250 

Boyd 

John 164,  272,  273 

William  147,  269,  272,  273 

Boydsyard,  Boij'/ard    132,  154,  163,  246,  251 

Braes    132,251,  276 

Braidwood,  James 142 

Brauocklie 136,  247,  251,  260 

Branscroft,  Barnscroft   123,  154,  177,  184,213, 

214,  247,  251,263 
Bride 

Saint  22,  25,  26 

•  Bride's  Burn 2,  3,  123 

Chapel 43,  50,  123 

Mill .34 

Hee  Auohindunan. 
Bridge 

-flat  123,  124,  251 

-of-Weir 3,  10,  172  «.,  251,275,  284 

-syde 121,  251 

Briggs,  Sanny     230 

Brisbane,  Alexander 135 

Brodie,  Breadine,  Breadie,  Brydin,  etc. 

Andrew 154,  184 

John 99 

Thomas    99 

William 271,  272,  286 

P.T.R 124,  125,  127,  130,  132,  138,  140 

Brookfield  251 

Brown,  Brone,  Brotoi,  Broicni/s. 
Brown 

Alexander    150,  268 

Catherine 109,  110 

Henry 36 

James 151,  270,  286 

Jean 154 

John 37,  38,  267 

Peter 37 

Robert  37,  38 

William 36,  75,  147,  181,  269 

P.T.R 131,  137 


INDEX. 


Bryce,  Mary  119 

Brymer,  William  279 

Buchanan 

James  -8- 

John 269 

Kobert 282 

Burnfoot 227,  251 

Burntsbiels,  Bryntschelis,  Brenc hall,  etc 5,  43, 

126,  167,  211,  217,  252;  church  at, 146, 

14S-50,  107,  170 
Bute,  But,  Biiyt 

Alexander  37 

James 36,  37 

John 38 

Butthall 128,  251 

Buttmeadow  154,  251 

Caldwell,  Cahiwall 

Archibald   271 

James 175,  177,  281,  282,  285 

John 277 

Robert 271,  2S6,  287,  289 

Thomas 274,287,289 

Walter 151,  175,  286,  287,  288 

P.T.R passim 

Callocliant,  Cahjuchant,  Cahachant  48,  49, 

139,  211,  252 

Callum,  Callume 

P.T.R 126,  132,  139 

Calsyde  136,  252,  260 

Campbell 

David  49 

Ebenezer 286 

Mrs 287,288 

William  289 

P.T.R 124,  127 

Can'le  House 178 

Carlisle  &  Rorison,  Messrs 176 

Carrutb 

Burn 2 

Robert : 272,  273 

Carruthers,  Thomas 269 

Carswell 

John 109,  2S7 

P.T.R 124,  129 

Cart,  Kert 

Black 2,  3,  7,  8,  30,  32,  34,  35,  178,  246, 

247,  252 

-Lochwinnoch 34,  224,  247 

Mill  of 175 

-side  Farm 3,  141,  210,  211,  252 

White 30 

Caskie,  Margaret  , , 123 

Catherine,  Katharine,  etc. 

Saint 23,  24,  25 


Catherine,  Katharine,  etc. 
Chapel  and  Chaplain  of 


Chain 


4,  48,  49,  52,  201, 
205,  206,  263 


Andrew,  James,  John  49,  55  n. 

Christie 

Margaret 133 

Patrick  110 

William  280 

Church  Street  278 

Clark,  Ckrh 

Andrew   .. 

Hugh 

John  

Thomas  ... 

P.T.R 

Clayfauld 

Clayhole 


6,  272, 


154 


289 


....  120,  122,  123,  126.  133,  135 

121,  252 

279 

136,  252,260 

Clidishede,  Robert .S6,  37 

Climie,  Climing,  Clymie 

John  99 

William  285 

P.T.R 122,  131,  139 

Clippens,  Clippings 132,  154,  172  h.,  253,  275 

Clochoderiok,  Clocholrich,  Clouchrochenj 4,  78, 

79,  124,  153,  253,  259 

Coalbog 128,  253,  260 

Cochrane,  Cochran 

Alexander 161,  290 

Andrew 37,     41 

Elizabeth 148 

Hugh 116,  154,  253,  274 

James 178,  289 

Joan  253 

John 147,  2.53,  287 

Marion 79 

Peter  253,  283 

Robert 41,  58,     59 

Steven 75 

William  79,  160,  271,  274 

P.T.R pawra 

Colquhoun,  Jean,  and  Mary  131 

Connell,  Jean 123 

Corbar,  Corbert,  Corsbar,  Corbets... 48,  49,  122,  232, 
253 

Cordoner,  P.T.R 120,  121,  1.38,  139 

Couper,  James  252,  287 

Cowie,  James  87,   155 

Cowloan  24 1 

Cowpark 253 

Cragenbroc  3 

Craig 

Hugh 286 

James  154,  168,  271 

2 


Ci-aig 

Mary  183 

P.T.K 125,  126  n.,  127,  131,  132,  141 

Craigends,  C>aga7ih...A2e,  129,  131,  141,  225,  246, 

253,  260 

Lady  162 

Laird  of 59,  75,  78,  152,  153,  163,  179,  183 

See  Cuningbanie. 

Craigneoch 123,  253 

Craigrooden  162,  253,  259 

CraigstOD,  Craigton,  Craig  s  Ptaiitalion,  ...129,  210, 

211,  253 

Craig woodie  13S,  253 

Cranfurd,  Crawford,  Crafoord 

Family  of 20311 

John 263,  267,276,  277,  278 

James  63 

Margaret 278 

Robert 56,  267 

of  Auchenames 1,  23,  48,  49,  69,  192,  196, 

197,  221,  275 

P.T.E 120,  123,  124.  139,  140 

Croked-Aiken 121,  254 

Cross 254 

Crossflat,   Corslet! 5,  123,  254 

Crossford   59 

Ciiik,  Owl-,  Robert 55,  207 

Gumming,  Cumyng,  Cumine 

David 287 

Gilbert 39 

James 79 

John.. 39 

P.T.R 126,  133,  134,  140 

Cuninghame,  Cunningham,  Conigham,  Cvmyghame 

Alexander 267.  270 

Christina 165 

Daniel 57,  58 

Elizabeth  205 

Family  of 187-203 

Gabriel  264 

Hugh 264 

John  267 

of  Craigends. ..39,  40,  47,  53,  55,  60,  69,  86,  90, 

104,  105,  153,  158,  260,  274 
.See  Craigends. 

Robert 196 

William 226,  270 

P.T.R 121,  124,  131,  137,  141 

Cuper ,  Janet 36 

Curll,  David  49,  52,  206 

Daflf,  Agnes,  and  Anna  125  n.,  126,  138 

Dalrymple,  Robert  259 

Daluith   254 


Damton,  Dam.ptoun,  Dantoun 49,. 124,  154,  182, 

211,254,  2.59 

Darroeh,  John  156 

Davidson,  George 186,  274 

Davie 

Francis 278,  279 

Janet  279 

Deafhillock 254,  276 

Dennistoune,  William 127 

Dick,  James 286,288,   290 

P.T.R 121,  129,  134,    137 

Donaldfield 254 

Donaldson,  Robert 50 

Dougall 

James 47 

William 59,     60 

Douglas 

Charles  279 

Donald 287 

James 269,  283 

Principal  269 

Robert 175.  268 

Drummond,  Drumont 

Ann 279 

Jean 139 

Drygate 3,5,  122,  232,  246,   254 

Dubsyde 136,  254 

Duncan 

Margaret 132 

Thomas 268 

Dundonald,  Earl  of  126,  153 

Dunlop,  Dunloap 

Elizabeth 163 

Jean 163 

Margaret 95,132 

Eadie,  John 272 

Easwald ...  153,  163,  254 

Erskine 

-Faulds  36,  254 

James  36,  41 

John 163,  287,  289 

William 52,  168,  271 

P.T.R 122,  131 

Ewing,  Euine 

James  98 

John 170 

•Street 254 

William  286 

P.T.K 122,  126,  140 

Fairlie,  Fairley 

Alexander  262 

Robert 272 

Faulds 3,  122,  232,  255 


INDEX. 


Fechnie,  Janet  130 

Fergow,  Jean 134 

Ferguson 

Robert 157,  159,  272,  273 

Sarah 136 

Ferrier 

Mrs 137,  143 

William  137,  143 

Finlay,  Findhi/ 

Alexander  287 

James 269,  273,  2S7 

John 272,  278 

-of  Clochoderick 46,  266 

Fleming,  Fleeming 

James 56,  65,  267 

John 56,  65,  267 

Matthew 287,  288 

P.T.R 127,  128,  131,  132 

Forehouse  125,  154,248,  255,  259 

Foresyile  125,  255 

Forgie,  James ...  110 

Foster,  John  121,  133 

Frog,  Henry  39 

Fuldub  255 

Fulton,  FouHuii...^,  32,  34,  35,  36,  53,  137,  138,  173, 
201,  255 

Matilda  of  33,  34 

MiUof 39 

Thomas 278 

Thomas  of 33,34 

William  272 

Fyfe,  Elspeth 131 

Galbraith,  Galhreath,  Calhreath 

John 147 

P.T.R 134 

Gardner,  Ganif,;  (lardiner 

John ". 287 

Laurence 273 

Michael 156,  159,  165,  271,  273 

P.T.R 125,  128,  131,  134,  137,  139 

Gavin,  Gaivn 

James  288 

John 288,290 

Mrs 279 

Wilham 288,  289,  290 

Gemmell,  Margaret  133 

Gibb,  Gib 

James  103 

Janet 103 

P.T.R 126,  130,  131 

Gibson,  Mrs.  J.  Y 25 

P.T.R 135 

Gladstone 140,  211,  246,  255 


Glassford,  -fuird 

James 6.1,  153 

Glegg,  John    272 

Glen 

Archibald 269 

John 13a 

Glendinning,  James 65,  68-70,  74,  79,  81,  267 

Glentyan,  -tayne,  -tyane  ...7,  48,  49,  139,  211,  241, 
242,  255,  279 

Mill  of 140,  175,  184,210 

Goldenknowes  132,  255 

Goldfridus  of  Nesbit 34 

Golkhall  136,  255 

Graham 

James  252" 

Robert 268 

Grant 

Alexander  279 

James 288,  290 

Gray,  Andrew 109 

Green 1.38,  246,  2.55 

Greenleis,  -lees 

James  286 

John 133 

William  65,  271 

Greenside    2,  4,  124,  154,  256 

Greystonefauld  256 

Gryffe,  Grif,  etc 2,  3,  4,  30,  32,  176,  224,  246, 

247,  256,  260,  27& 
Guliehouse 121 

Hair,  Hare,  Hayr 

Ellen  277 

.John 154,  164,  286 

Margaret 93 

Molly  277 

William  162,  285 

P.T.R 125,  129,  138,  139 

Hairlaw 7,  8,  132,256 

Hairspinnel  138,  213,  214,  25& 

Hairswa's 138,256,259 

Haldane,  Francis 270 

Hall 

John 38,  65 

P.T.R 121,  138 

Hallam,  Mr 157 

HallhiU 79,  128,  195,  260 

Halltoun,  Ha'toun 136,  260 

Hamilton,  Hammyltoun,  Hamtoun 

Alexander 64,78 

Andrew 54,  56,  61-6,  74,  75,  102,  158,  267 

AnnabeUa 102 

Archibald 38 

Claud  52,  53 

David  ..  40 


300 


Hamilton,  Hammylioiin,  Hamloun 

Gavin  40.  54,  59,  267 

James 110,153,  261 

Patrick  57,58,     59 

Thomas  57 

P.T.R 125,  129,  137 

Haningsyde  120 

Hardgate  , 122,  232,  256,   289 

Hardhouse 256 

Hardie,  William  E 272,  273 

Harvey  of  Castle  Semple 239-41,  275 

Hatrig.  P.T.R 125,   139 

Hay,  Williams 268,  269 

Henderson,  Hendirson 

Alexander  60 

Gabriel  47 

Mary  262 

Matthew 154,  271 

Robert 59,     60 

William  74 

P.T.R 121,  123,  132,  138 

Henry  of  St.  Martin 32,  33,  34,  44,  245 

Herbertson,  Gaven 186 

Hill 122,  127 

John  272 

William  286 

Hillhead 1?1 

Hodgson,  William  273 

Holden,  Isaac  283 

Holmes 

Janet  283 

William  272 

Honeyman 

John 186,271,  273 

Mrs 279 

Robert 165 

Thomas  287,  290 

-'s  Property 211 

Horsewood 136,  256,  260 

-head 260 

Houstoun,  Hou-iton 

Alexander 274,  287 

George  93,  153,  199 

James 181,  186 

Jean 184 

John 175,  178,  286,  288 

Margaret 56,  62,  160,  207-8 

of  Johnstone 233-5 

Robert 278,  279,  280 

-'s  Property 211 

P.T.R passim 

How,  Haw 

Andrew  179 

James  259 


How,  Haw 

John 59,  78,  154, 

175 

182, 

208, 

248, 

259, 

270 

287 

288, 

290 

Mary 

259 

Thomas 

2-)9 

William   

259 

P.T.R 

pas-ni 

Hugo,  son  of  Reginald 

33 

Hume 

Aenes 

109 

Robert 

Hunter 

'?S0 

John 

181 

P.T.R 

..121 

126 

137 

Hutchison,  Hutcheon 

James  

59 

John 59 

Margaret 47 

Marion 123 

Huthead 211,  250 


Inglis,  Inglice 

Janet  

Mrs 

William   

Innice,  Margaret 


Jackson,  -soun 

James 

William  

P.T.R 122, 

Jamieson,  Jamstouii 

Andrew  

Isobel  

James  

John 

William   

P.T.R 123,  135, 

John,  Master 

Johnson,  James 269, 

Johnstone 5,   110.   120,  129,  131,  134,  135, 

163,  235,  246,  256,  276,  289, 

House 

Laird  of 82,  119,  152,  153, 

See  Houstoun. 

Mm  175, 

Robert 144-6,  151,  154, 


2,  267 


Kaim-hill,  Kame-,  Caym- 7,  128,  177,  196,  257, 

289 

Kelso 

James 285 

John  74,  168,  271 

P.T.R 128,  136 


INDEX. 


Kenmuir 

43,  50,  257 

Kennedy 
Barbara 

137 

John 

050 

Thomas  

Kerr 

David  . 

153,  177,  259 

156,  ISO,  286 

P.T.R 

Kibbleston,  Ki.bble- 

131,  136,138 

5,  140,  206.  211,  257 

Kilbarchan 

K.lloch 

P.T.K 

128,  130,  133 

King 

David 

94 

Edward 

Hugh 

John 

Mrs 

.-.9,  0.5,  27.!,  289,  290 

Robert 

P.T.R 

Kirkland,  Alexander 
Kirkwood,  James  ... 

pa.<s;m 

279 

192,  279 

Knowe 

150 

Knox,  K,>ok,  Kiiokh, 

Cnoc 

Elizabeth 

Elspa 

"77 

John 

of  Eanfurly  

of  Selvieland 

38,39,40,58,62,89,260 

.......69,223  6,261,292 

Uchtred 

ogo 

Walter 

Laird 

Alexander 

Andrew 

290 

107 

James 

.     ...                            186   ''72 

John  

P.T.R 

127,  129,  132,  138 

Lang,  Laing 
Arthur 

070  079 

John 

Robert 

271 

WillL-im  

147   276 

P.T.R 

127,  128,  135,  136,  140 

Law,  Lawland 

132,  153,  254,  2.58 

Lawmarnock,  Lynnernocht . . .3,  26,  48,  49,  140,  141, 
258,  275 

Lennox,  .Agues  136 

Leslie,  Francis 63 

Levingstoun,  James 267 

Liddell,  Helen 129 

Liggett 

P.T.R 130,  138 

Lily's  Day 179 

Lindsay 

John  130,  167,  170,  268,  277 

P.T.R 120,  136 

Linn,  Jean  125 

Lint-white,  -wheel 3,  128,  195,  196,  258,  260, 

278,  289 

Liuwood,  Lijnwoth- 2,  6,  7,  9,  10,  34,  40,  53, 

75,   132,   134,  135,  172  »., 
176,  177,  257,  275, 276,  284 

Listone,  William 100 

Loads 

P.T.R 131 

Lochend  257 

Looher,  Lughor,  Lochoc 3,  8,  32,  246,  247,  257, 

260,  276 

-Mill 8,  10,  128,  175,  195,  196,  260,  276,  289 

.Printfield  7,  8,  284 

■side 109,  128,  196,  276,289 

Lochhead ,  Lochead 

P.T.R 120,  122,  128,  129 

Lochpen  140,  257 

Lockhart,  Lokhart 

Agnes  132 

Archibald  75 

Logan,  William 40 

Love,  Luif 

Agnes  277 

Janet 155 

John 155,  271,  279 

Margaret 206 

Robert 276,  277 

William 287 

P.T.R 123,  130,  136,  139  140 

Lyie,  Lylle,  etc. 

Agnes , ICO,  282-3 

Alex.ander 175,  273,  279,  287,  289,  291 

John 147,  2S8,  290 

Margaret 285 

Robert 274 

William 280^  286 

P.T.R 122,  127,  129,  130,  134-7 

M'Alister,  Alexander  131 

M'Alpie,  P.T.R 133 

M'Arthur,  P.T.R 128 

M'Cara,  John 149,  268 

2 


302 


INDEX. 


M'Caulay,  Robert 245,260,  267 

M'Crorie,  Thomas 272,  273 

M'Cunnochie,  Jeau 123 

M'Donakl,  Serg 279 

M'Dougal, 273 

MacDowall 

Day  Hort 260 

Family  of 201,  236-7,  275 

M'Farlane 

Dr 2S3 

George 279 

M'Girdy,  Michael 279 

M'Gregor 

John 269,  282 

Oliver 180,   282 

M'lnlay,  Robert 133 

M'Intyre,   Duncan 279 

M'Kaw,  Mary 47 

M'Kechuey,  James 186 

M 'Reich 

George 278,  280 

Hugh 280 

M'Kemie,  M'Kemmie 

James 161,   210 

P.T.R 124,   131 

MacKenzie,  R.  D 268 

M'Kie,  Janet 124 

M'Kindlay,  John 288,  290 

M'Kuab,  John 160 

M'Lachlan,  John 142 

M'Laren,  John 151,  268 

M'Lean,  Laohlan 250 

M'Lintock,  James 272 

M'Neill,  Catherine 128 

M'Oscar,  William 282 

M 'Queen,  Makquhin 

John 47,  48,  52,  53,  55,  194,  245,  266 

Macrae,  John 287,  290 

Malcom,  Robert 37 

Mains 120,  122,  139,  140,  246,  258 

Manson 

Henry 273 

William  157,  273,  '289,  '290 

Manswraes,  i/anstoacy, 128,  130,  195,  196,  258, 

260,  276,  289 
Marshall,  Merschell,  Mairshall 

George 109 

John 163,  259,  270,  277 

-Moor 3,  5,  258,  277 

Robert 276 

William 78,  270 

P.T.R 1-20,  125,  126,  130,  13'2,   135 

Matilda  of  Fulton 33,     34 

Maxwell 

Jean 88,  136 


Maxwell 

Patrick 9,  50 

147-8,  155,  173,  176-8,  18'2, 

184,  186,  268 

232 

Meadside 

151    258    279 

Meikle,  Alexander  .... 

Merchant,  P.T.R 

120 

Merchiston 

7    258 

258 

Methel,  William 

37 

Michalson,  Afechehon 
John 

37 

William 

36 

Millar,  Millar 

James 

74,  164,  285 

John 

65  273    289 

P.T.R 

Milliken 

120,  123,  126,  129,  131,  137 
258 

James.. ..146,  156, 

-Mill 

162,  163,  177,  259,  260,  285 

Minister's  Park 

211 

Mitchell,  Michel! 

John 

Montgomerie,  Mount- 

Ezekiel 

James 

264,265,  270 

65,  69,  75,  264 

P.T.R 

Moodie 
Gavin 

119,  123,  127,  140,  141 

115 

P.T.R 

Moorefoot 

129,   138 

138    259 

Morrison 

Archibald 

289 

P.T.R 

Morton,  Mortoun 

129 

108 

John 

40 

Walter 

William 

.foul            

211 

-land 

259 

128,  259,  264 

Mouss,  Henry 

INDEX. 


Mowatt,  Isobel 63, 

JIudy 

Elizabeth 277, 

John 266, 

Muir 

James  

John 

of  Kowallan 

Muirhead 53,  133, 

Murdoch 

Alexander 287,  288, 

P.T.R 132, 

Murdgeonhill,  Margon- 122, 

Murdy, 


Napier,  Naper 

Captain 147,  238,  285 

of  Blackstone 133,  153,  235-6 

of  Milliken 237-9,  274,  275 

William 280 

Neasmith,  Matthew 123 

Nebannoy 211,  259 

Neil,  Janet    140 

Nelston,  Xeilson 

William 288 

P.T.R 120,  138 

New  Street 3,  259 

Nisbet    257 

Niven,  -ine 

John   271 

P.T.R 122,   126 

Orr,  Or 

James 272,  273 

John 154,  167,  168,  271,  274,  276.  286-90 

Margaret 50 

Ranald 40 

Robert 264,  288 

Thomas  50,85,279,  286 

William  274 

P.  T.  R passim 

Ouplay,  P.T.R 123,  140 

Over  Johnstone 131,  254 

Overton  139,211,259,  263 

Paisley,  Pasley 

John   36,  37 

Robert 89 

Park 

John 47,182,  285,  288,  290 

William   287,  288 

P.T.R 126,  127,  131,  132,  136 

Parker 

Alexander  286 

George 276 


Parker 

Ninian 116 

P.T.R 127,  128,  136 

Parkhead 260 

Passinglinn,  Pishenlinne  139,211,  260 

Paterson,  Patisoyi,  etc. 

John                                              75,  78,  270,  270 

Miltolm                                                    107,  196 

Matthew  288 

Peter  110 

William                                                      64,  182 
P.T  R                                                          pas^zm 
Paton,  Patoun 

James 287 

William  182 

Pendreiche,  Robert  63 

Peock,  Andrew  L 269 

Pierson,  David  84,  97-101,  155,  267 

Piukertoun 

Walter    287 

P.T.R 122 

Pinnel,  Penuld,  Pennale,  etc.  4,  10,  32,  43,  44,  125, 

138,  153,  173,  177,  179,  210,  214,  246,  247,  254, 

259,  262,  276,  280 

-Mill 258,  259 

Plainlees 123,  260 

Plewright,  John 123 

Pol  wart,  Andrew  52 

Porterfield,  Alexander 153 

Powburn 260 

Prieston 44,  50,  136,  260 

Public  Park 3,  177 

Purdon,  Matthew 279 

Pynsdaill 121 

Quarry  Park  232 

Rabstoun,  Rohhstoune 140,  211,  262,  264 

Ranfurly,  Ramphordlie,  etc.  58,  135,  136,  153,  179, 

203-6,  245,  247,  260,  292 

Castle  261 

Chapel  of  50,  260 

See  Knox. 

Rankine,  Castle 263 

Ray,  James 270 

Redan 262 

Reid 

Janet  86,  116 

John   79,  272 

Robert 43,  271,  272,  287,  290 

William  155,  168,  271 

P.T.R passim 

Rendyck 120,  262 

Riddell,  Elspe   122 

Ritchie,  Jean 129 


INDEX. 


Riverees,    Wraywraes,  Ri/wraithls  ...5,  53,  262,  277 
Robertson,  Roblesoune 

,T.  M 268 

Mrs 270 

P.T.R 120 

Rodger,  Botjer 

Jolin     272 

Mr 173 

Robert 163,  272 

Vicar  46,  266 

William  196,259.  271 

P.'i'.R 128,  130 

Ross,  P.T.R 134,   141 

Ronghill,     262 

Rowantreeflat    262 

Russell,  Robert 268 

Sandholes 262 

Saucer,  Malcolm    36 

Schoolfauia    262 

Sclaitter,  P.T.R 135 

Scoch,  Agnes 124 

Scott,  Srot 

Johu 166,  £74,  286 

Walter   37,     39 

P.T.R 127,  129,  131,  140 

.Seoul.ir,  Scoitler 

Dr.  John 283 

John  R 269 

Selvieland,  7,  134,  135,  153,  198,  226,  227,  262,  292 

See  Knox. 
Sempill,  Semple,  Simpil,  Sijmpyll,  etc. 

Agnes  79 

Alexander  287,289,  290 

Andrew 75 

Gabriel  276 

Giles 78 

Hugh,  Hew  75,  78,  168,  270.  271 

.Tames    75,178,  270 

Johu .30,  37,  40,  41,  60,   168,  210,  252,  264, 

270,  271 

Lords    42,43,50,52,64,76,   i53 

of  Beltrees 69,  72,  75,  76,  112,  153,  195, 

217,  227-33,  263 

of  Burntshiels, 62,  217,  252 

of  Castle  Sempill 211-22 

of  EUiestoun 49,  211 

Patrick    41 

Thomas   42 

William 35,  36,  38,  49,  162,   168,  201,  252, 

263,  264,  271,  277 

P.T.R passim 

Shand,  Alexander  M 268 

Shaw,  S/iaos 

Christian 178,   199 


Shaw,  Shaos 

James 47,  109,  266,  277,  278 

John 109 

Simou 266,  277 

William 269 

P.T.R 122,123,  129,  134,  135 

Sheirer,  Janet 136 

Shillingworth  136,  260,  26 i,  276 

Shuttle  Street 263,  278 

Simpson,  Simson,  Synsoun,  etc. 

Alison, 99 

Habbie  or  Robert.. 36,  37,  38,  67,  195,  2.S0,  281 

John 36-38,  156,  273 

P.T.R 130,  134,  138 

Sinkler,  George 131 

Smellie,  John 285,  287 

Smith 

Alexander ". 287 

Andrew 287 

George  M 268 

Misses 5,   283 

Snodgrass 

John 153 

Mr 163 

P.T.R. 120,  121,   129 

Speir,  Speir.^,  Spear 

Alexander 154,  168,  175,  2,55,  271,  287 

Allan  : 175 

Archibald  252,  261 

James ...74,  279 

John '.IS,  K;:;,  2.".2.  264,  271,  286 

of  Blackstone,  241,  275 

of  Culdees 2.36,  238 

Robert 160,  186,252,271,  288 

William   286 

P.T.R pussim 

Spouthead  177 

Spring-grove 5,   177 

SprouU,  Matthew 184 

Stack-yard  175,  241 

Steeple  Street 263,  278 

Steill 

P.T.R 136,  138,  141 

Stevens,  James 286 

Stevenson,  Steinsoim,  Sthixon 

James 179,  272,  273,  290 

Janet 280 

John  164.270,272.  286 

Robert 269 

William 162 

P.T.R 122,  124,  127-9,  131,   136 

Stewart,  Stuart 

Alexander 160 

James 2flU 


305 


Stewart,  SCuart 

John 270,  2S6,  2SS 

Mary  160 

Matthew 186 

William   162 

P.T.K 121,  126,  130,  132,  133,  135,  137 

Stirling 

Captain  241-2 

James 71,  86,90-5,101,  102,  144,  155,   162, 

198,  267 

John 70-90,  96,  99,  101,  117,  155,  181,  234, 

267 

Mrs 83 

Eobert 56,  57,  193,  267 

-Street 241 

Strathview 3 

Strong,  Daviil  269 

Syan'sAcre  263 

Symm,  John  41 

Tandlehill  120,  163,  263 

Tarhert,  Terbet 

John 287 

Robert 290 

Terbet's  263 

William  287 

P.T.R 120,  123,  126,  129,  132,  138,  139 

Tate,  James 39 

Taylor,  Taijhcotir 

John 250 

Robert 184 

Telfer,  Jean  109 

Tenant,  TeiinaiU 

JohnC 270 

Josepli  74,  155 

Thirdpart 3,  38,  79,  122,  153,  161,  214,  217,  227, 

232,  263 

Thomas,  son  of  Nicholas 33 

Thomson 

Archibald 274 

George 288 

John 160 

Maky 36 

Margaret 160 

Mrs 283 

Thomas  R 270 

P.T.R passim 

Threplie,  Thriplee,  etc 87,  128,  197,  260,  263 

Todhoks,   7,  133,  263 

Toflfts,  Elspeth  127 

Torr  2,  197,  260,263,  276 

-hill 87,  127 

To werhouse  , 3 

Tow-n-foot 150,  278 

Troop,  Andrew  250 


Turnbull,  Robert. 
'Tween-ye-hills  ... 


ITrri,  (r,.,> 

James  119 

William  34,  204 

Veitch,  Margaret  ' 130 


Walker 

Emmanuel 


.129,  133, 


James  

Peter 

P.T.K 

Walkinshaw 

James  83,  84,  110, 

John 

WalkmiU,  Waulk- 120,  122, 

Wallace,  Walace 

Elizabeth 

James 65,  257, 

Jean 

John 

Mary  

Matth  e  w 

Robert 

Thomas 

William  60,  62,  257,  267,  270,  277, 

P.T.R 120,  129,  137. 

Wardend  49,  140,211, 

Wardhouse  154, 

Warner,  John...  146-47,  154,  156,  166,  185,  268, 

Warnokis,  Archibald 

Waterstone,  Walterdone,  WatterstuimcA,  128, 
154,  195,  196, 

James  

Watersyde  120,  232, 

Watson,  -Koun 

Adam 47,  55, 

John 

Watt 

James  

John 

Weitlands,  Wheat-,  Well-,  Weet-...A3,  60, 
154,  156,  213,  214,  254,  259,  264,  265, 

Welsh,  John  

Whiunerstone  

White,  Robert 168, 

Whytehill 

John  135, 

Robert  169, 

Widderspoon,  WiUiam 

Wilson 

Adam  


:306 


INDEX. 


Wilson 

Archibald 97,  101-4,  267 

Elizabeth 202 

George 274 

Isobel  79 

James 154,  269 

John 63,  262,  274 

Mary 262 

Matthew 273 

P.T.R 120,  126,  132,  137,  139,  141 

WindiehiU 53,  137,  154,  265 

Wodrow,  Woodroiv,  Widrow 

Matthew 272 

Robert 183 

William 272 

P.T.R 121,  131,  133,  140,  141 


PAGE 

Wrayes  38 

Wright 

P.T.R 125,  127 

Wylie,   Wyllie 

Alexander  286 

David  S 150,  268 

P.T.R 132,  137,  138,  140 

Yardshead  265 

Yeardfoot 120,  139,  265 

Young 

Andrew 87 

James 154,  156,  162,  163,  165,  168,  271,  273 

P.T.R 125,  130,  133,  139 


ERRATA. 

Page  245,  line  22— Read  "  Henry  "  of  St.  Martin's  for  "  Thomas." 
„     267,    „    22— Read  "  John  "  Stirling  for  "  James." 
„     277,    „    18 — After  "  20  "  insert  "  pounds." 


■Hi 


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